Where have you been for twelve years?
by KollyWolly
Summary: Lily has to go on the run leaving James completely in the dark. Twelve years later, after the murder of the entire Longbottom family, Lily returns with her son to try and save her family from falling apart any further.
1. Leaving America

This is my first chapter. Hope you like it.

This is my take on what happens if Lily is forced to go on the run meaning both the Potter's never die.

"Come on Harry, you need to say your goodbyes." Lily said as she walked over to the fireplace. She had charmed her bag to hold everything. "Harry?" she turned around and noticed her baby boy standing there trailing his favourite toy on the floor with his eyes full of tears. He kept looking at his surroundings, trying to remember all the memories he had once made in that house.

Everything from: jumping on the sofa and believing it was a trampoline to being, sitting on his mother's bed being fed soup and tea. "Do we have to leave?" he begged, now looking up at his mother, he had recently turn eleven and all he wanted to do was run around, play with Trevor (his toy owl) as well as his quidditch set.

The beautiful ginger mother, crouched down to almost the same height as her son while she cupped his hands in hers, "Yes baby. We are going to where I grew up and went to school. I promise you, that you'll love the place." She held up her little finger, "I will pinky promise you." Harry wiped away his tears with the sleeve to his jumper and made a pinky promise with his mother that he would give this new place a try.

Lily held onto her son's hand as tight as she possible while holding the dust in the opposite hand, looked at the place she had lived for 11 years and 6 months of her life and then gazed at her baby. "Ready?" he nodded in return.

"Diagon alley." She proclaimed as loud and as punctually correct as could be done. A flash of green light appeared surrounding them and they were gone. There was nothing left in their old house, only what was there before they came. It was dead quiet, the wooden floors laid still, the only sound was a constant flow of water droplets falling from the slightly open tap in the kitchen.

A good detective could tell you a lot about a person by what their bare house looks like, the lounge had a hole in the wall.

A couple of months into living here, Lily was scared and afraid of running anymore. It had started to make her ill, until she relieved that wasn't an illness she had; but a baby, and really bad morning sickness. When she found out that she probably would never go back home to England she punched the wall in anger. That night Lily lost all wanting to go back home for a long time, her new goal now was to raise her child as well as she could away from all the pressures of being who he was meant to be: the chosen one.

"Mummy, are you okay?" Harry asked pulling his mother's sleeve, Lily stood there in shock. It was like time had not touched this place, the shops were as vibrant and full of joy as she had once remembered, being a younger girl.

"Yes Harry, do you want to get some sweets?" her emerald eyes were full of life and happiness. She was a child again, and she was taking her baby to her favourite sweet shop in the world. It was a dream, no better than a dream, dreams you have to wake up from; but not this. Harry's face lit up, it had been really upset with moving and he wanted to eat something sweets.

With that, Lily and Harry were off through the crowded streets into an even busier sweet shop. Harry was eager and when it came to his turn, he ordered as much sweets as he was allowed and walked out of the shop with his head held as high as he could with his little chest pumped out feeling proud of all his sweets as he licked a owl lollipop.

They crossed through the shops one by one, Lily wanted to go to the bookshop and Harry wanted a new broomstick. Some wizards were trying to sell the newspaper, and shouted the headlines as they went, "You-Know-Who followers responsible for the death of the Longbottom family! James Potter still hasn't found Barty Crouch Jr. Should they get someone new to do his job?!" Lily looked at the floor, she was reminded her old close friends had died. Alice and Frank Longbottom, as well as their child Neville had been murdered. It was their funeral in the next couple of days and she wanted to be there.

Lily found out the news through a letter from Dumbledore, asking her to come back.

 _Dear Lily Evans/ Potter,_

 _I'm sorry to be the one to tell you this but, last night Alice and Frank were murdered in their home. Alice had notified me that if she was ever to pass away to give you this message._

' _Lily, baby, you need to come home. I know you're scared and on the run but we can protect you here. I got your final letter years ago now saying about your baby boy, and your thoughts about who he is and who he will become. But this cannot stop you, we all miss you. I didn't tell the boys why you left or where you went as said but they are worried about you. They are your family now. Come home, you need to find James and tell him about Harry. He needs to know, he needs you, although he will never say this: he misses you. They all do, I know that I'm gone now but please for the sake of your son and the wizarding world please come back to England and help us win the war.'_

 _I know I probably wasn't meant to read or hear any of this, I believe she is right. And in Hogwarts right now we have a position opening as a Potions professor. So now you have no reason not to return. I know that you have put your son down to attend Hogwarts. Which his letter will be coming in the post when I get your new English address, I hope to be hearing from you soon,_

 _Albus Dumbledore._

Tears rolled down Lily's face as she read the letter, she knew that she had to return. She couldn't put it off any longer however talking to James was the biggest step she was going to have to take. She hadn't seen or heard from him in 11 years now. James must hate her, Lily don't know how he could forgive her for what she did to him.

She knew she had to talk to him. She knew she had to explain what she did, but wasn't ready to tell him she was too scared.

Lily stopped and looked at the pub right in front of her 'The Leaky Cauldron', it smelt disgusting like owl pee and cigars but this was right. "Come on Harry, we need to get you some really food." she walked in and got a corner booth, ordered the food and sat back down. "Do you like Diagon alley, Harry?" she questioned looking over at Harry with him hugging onto his new broomstick.

"Yeah, it's amazing. Everything is so nice and happy here. When are we going to go to our new home?"

"Well, because of my new job. I'm going to be working where you will be going to school, so are going to spend most of our time there. But we will have a some house in London to go to at Christmas and in the summer. You know the school I went to and I met your dad…" Harry nodded "... well that is where you are going to school, Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry. It will feel like home."


	2. Potter's Life

Earlier that day, in the Potter manor:

"Padfoot!" a voice screamed from downstairs.

"WHAT?!" Sirius shouted in reply.

"We have work in ten minutes are you up!?"

"I don't want to go to work, it's boring." Sirius mumbled from the top of the stairs. He was wearing a white seethrough bedsheet; and nothing else.

"Stop being a child and let's go."

"Do I have to James?" Sirius in a slightly sweeter voice, "we could play Quidditch all day instead." he stated following up.

"Come on, we have a big chase. We need to find him, I'm not letting that bitch get away with what they did to Frank and his family. Now come on mate." James replied, he had always been closed to Frank, like an older brother to him. Especially, since his wife was taken just less than 12 years ago , he wanted to talk to Sirius about it, but he been away with Remus on a holiday to Hawaii for his birthday.

He buttered his toast and let his mind wonder, _where could he be? There's Malfoy Manor, but I would never be able to check. It's too well protected. I need to get him, sooner rather than later. Definitely sooner._

"Ready." Sirius started jumping up and down and jogging on the spot. "Do you have any more leads on the Longbottom chase?"

"Well, it's not like it's hard to add up all the pieces, but it just doesn't make sense." James said confused, "Whay is iy?" Sirius with his mouth full of toast he had stolen from James.

"Neville was meant to be the Chosen One. With him being the only one fulfilling the prophecy, but he never really defied Voldemort. But years ago, Frank was saying to me that there is another child fitting the prophecy, however before he could finish Alice told him not to say another word. So does this mean that Neville wasn't ever the Chosen One? And his family died for no reason? If so, where is this baby, wait he would be a young man now, although where is he?"

"Too many question, and too many answers." Sirius stated.

James waved his hand as if to dismiss the idea and grabbed his coat. "Come on, we need to go. Otherwise we will be late." they walked into their fireplace and disappeared into the green flames, with the words 'Ministry of Magic.'

The Ministry of Magic in the Auror department felt quite small, fortunately James had his own office next to Sirius. They had been promoted recently, fancy office, amazing money. The money had never been a problem for the two of them; being who they were with the background that they had. James hated the fact he had come from a rich family, it meant anything he did was compared to them, and he was always in the papers for doing something wrong.

James' office was busy, papers everywhere, nothing packed away. It described how busy it was in work. James always had three or four cases on at the same time, he hated it. It meant he could never give one case his full attention; but this one was the only exception. Earlier that week, James had handed out all other cases to the other Aurors in his department, it made it a lot easier but horrific at the same time. All he could think about was this one case, all he could dream about.

The case itself made sense: motive, victims and attackers. But why them? He hated to think anyone wanted to hurt his friends but especially for power and fear. It made him sick. He hated the idea someone hurt his friend, correction his family. Ever since, James had lost his parents he turned to Lily and Frank, but then Lily disappeared leaving only Frank left. He knew he could talk to Sirius, Remus and Peter, but this was very different. He only felt like he could go to Frank about other things, like more serious things.

"How's it going James?" he was woken from his day dreaming, by Sirius' head floating outside his door.

"Why are you using the cloak?" James replied moving his glasses to rub his eyes.

"It's lonely. It never gets used, not since June. She needed an airing." Sirius explaining with an excited look plastered across his face.

"Okay just make sure no one sees you with it. Do you want to get some lunch? My brain cannot think anymore. I need some caffeine."

"Come on I know the right place. The sweet shop in Diagon alley." Sirius exclaimed.

"Aren't we a little old to be going to sweet shops? I haven't been since I was a teenager."

"You're never too old for sweet shops, never! I hope I never outgrow them, there is no life without sweets, alcohol and good times. You take one of them away and I will die." Sirius slowly did a very dramatic acting of having a heart attack.

"Well, if you're dead. I will have to go alone to get lunch then." James pondered out loud.

"It's a miracle! I live. I am the boy who lived!" Sirius sprung to his feet.

James had been fortunate to have a fireplace in his office. It made getting to places a lot easier than going to the ground floor, that's what Sirius would always say. But James always called him lazy, however he enjoyed it being so close.

Sirius scooped up a handful of dust and said clearly "Diagon alley."


	3. Diagon Alley

With James' job, the two of them would never normally go out. James was always thinking about the cases, that didn't stop him then either. "But how could he have gotten away that easily? We had men guarding them."

"James. You need a break, yes I loved Alice and Frank as much as you did. But you're not eating, or sleeping. You cannot catch the bitch until you get back in your groove. When you do, you will be able to solve this case in a heartbeat. However, as your brother, let's just not talk about work and enjoy ourselves like we use to."

"Okay." James knew there was no point in arguing. He knew he was right, Sirius was somehow getting wiser and James found it funny how Sirius would act when he was right.

"To the sweet shop." Sirius proclaimed as if they were on a major journey.

Sirius sprinted into the sweet shop, not caring about James in the process. On the other hand James followed behind him walking smiling at his friend acting like a little child, the shop was just full of children under the age of 12 with their parents. Apart from Sirius who was a lot taller than any of the children, but still acting as excited as they were to the thought of sweets. James smiled. Nothing seemed to upset Sirius, the world was going to shit but he didn't care. All he wanted was the little things; like sweets and alcohol.

At this moment, a ginger haired women with emerald eyes was leading her son out of that exact sweet shop. Her son had an owl shaped lollipop that he was licking, and a bag full of sweets. They looked familiar to James, he couldn't place where they were from until the lady spun her head round to glance behind her. It was as if at that moment, she felt someone looking at her. She didn't notice him, but he noticed her. It was Lily, his wife. The women who had been lost for almost twelve years. But how could it be? She was thought to be dead. He thought she was dead. There was no other explanation, they were so strong as a unit. They had been together since the last year at Hogwarts.

But she was exactly as he had imagined her to look like, still smaller than him. Her vibrant ginger hair flowing, perfectly straight, long and waving in the wind. Her eyes, like a jewel, sparkled. As well as, showing her personality; kind but strong. Every detail on her face looked like it was Lily's from her small button nose, to her amazing smile. _This must be her. She has a son? So she has moved on? Where has she been all these years, I'm assuming with another random guy. How could she do that to us, she was my family? She could have atleast told me. But she looks happy, there's no point trying to change her mind. It's been twelve years, why would she want to be with me now?_

"LOOK WHAT I BOUGHT!" Sirius shoved an owl shaped lollipop in his face, James was not in the mood.

"Cool I'll meet you at home okay." James walked off without saying another word. Sirius respected that he needed space, even though he had no clue to what was going on.

The next morning:

"Where is he?! He hasn't been home all night?" Sirius screamed at Peter, pacing up and down the kitchen.

"I don't know, what do you think happened to him?" Peter muttered while eating his full english breakfast.

"I don't know Peter! That's why I'm so worried about him."

Suddenly there was a bang from inside the fireplace. "Where have you been all night JAMES POTTER!" Sirius screamed, James was rubbing his head. Sirius scanned him, "do you have a hangover?"

"Yes, now can you be more shhhhhh." James replied, he flopped onto the sofa and closed his eyes.

"Not until you tell me where you have been? And why you walked off yesterday?" Peter kept quite, engulfing his bacon.

"Did you see who was in the sweet shop yesterday? Oh wait, you didn't notice anyone apart from the sweets."

"A bit uncalled for. Who did you see then? Who got you this wimpy?"

"Lily."

A silence fell over the room that left the other Marauders' mouths gaping open.

Sirius thought back to the last time he had seen Lily. The morning of her disappearing:

"Are you okay Lily?" Sirius asked Lily.

"Yeah just not feeling too well. I can't keep down any food."

"Maybe you're coming down with something."

"Yeah maybe. Do you know who was behind those muggleborn abductions? It's got to twelve now. I don't want to worry James with this but I thought I was being followed the other day."

"What! Really?" Sirius whispered."Why haven't you told James? He will put an army of aurors to surround you in a second."

"I think it's me being stupid though, it could be nothing-"

"But it could be something." Sirius interrupted Lily.

"It's not, promise me you don't tell him."

"WHAT? I have to tell him." Sirius squealed.

"I'll tell him who really broke his childhood broomstick."

"No you wouldn't."

"Just keep it a secret." Lily whispered.

"Fine."

"Good."

That was the last memory Sirius had of Lily. He knew that there was something going to happen to her but didn't do anything about it, it drove him insane sometimes. To this day he hadn't told James or any of the other Marauders of what he knew. If his friends knew what he knew and did nothing: James would blame, Remus wouldn't speak to him and Peter would try to talk to him but be too scared of James.

Peter's memory of Lily was even more recent than Sirius.

"Peter. I need you to get James. I need him." Lily rapidly shouted in Peter's face.

"Lily calm down. What happened?" Lily's hand were wrapped around Peter's arm, as if she was trying to stay afloat and he was the only thing that she could hold onto. "Breath.. Now tell me what has happened?" she continued to scan the area around her, Lily was out of breath and scared.

Her long and radiant hair, was now sweaty and messy. At that point Lily told him everything that had happened to her. Her biggest mistake, for what she didn't know was Peter wasn't on her side. Ever since the sixth year of Hogwarts Voldemort's followers wanted to keep an eye on 'Potter, Black and their pet', so they chose the last remaining member of the Marauders to do the task at had; Peter.

"Okay calm down don't worry, stay here and I will go and get James. Don't go anywhere." Peter reassured Lily. She was trying to slow down her breathing and stop crying; they only thing that was helping was knowing James was on his way.

On the other hand, Peter was thinking something completely different: _if I tell the Dark Lord where she is then he will trust me. He will appreciate me. He won't hurt me as I will be his favourite and I will be thought of highly._

Peter apparated to Malfoy Manor, not to Potter Manor.

Since that time, Peter believed Lily was dead, that is what the Dark Lord said had happened. So how could she be alive? Does she know what he did?

Peter tried to keep completely still and not make anything noticeable. His heart was thumping so loud he thought the other two could here him, sweat began to race down from his forehead. He looked from Sirius to James seeing if they noticed his movements; he couldn't tell if they knew.

"Are you sure it was Lily?" Peter stuttered.

"Positive." James replied bluntly.

"But I thought she was dead." Sirius stated. James turned round and shot him a glare, ever since Lily had gone missing, James would never admit she was 'dead' holding onto the hope she was alive somewhere.

"Well she's moved on." James said shielding his eyes from the harsh sunlight.

"What does that mean? What do you mean she's moved on?" Sirius questioned.

"She had a child with her, Sirius. She has moved on. Had someone else's baby." this hurt James to say.

12 years ago:

The light eliminated Lily's face perfectly, it was a Sunday morning, and James was just admiring his wife sleeping. Her skin was soft to touch and smooth to look at, her hair fell perfectly around her. _I never want this moment to end. She is the person I want to be with forever, I want to have her children and grow old with her. Laugh about the old times and the times to come._

Lily's eyes fluttered open, "Morning." James whispered as he kissed his wife on her cute button nose. "Why are you in such a good mood?"

"Because I wanted to ask you something, and I hope you will say yes."

"We have already done that. We got married a year ago."

"I know but there is something else-"

"What?"

"Let me finish-"

"Okay"

"Can we start on making a family?" James asked, Lily was taken back. She thought he was going to ask to have pancakes with his full english breakfast, like every other week; but no he wanted a family.

"But the War is at its worst. Do you really want to bring a baby into that world?" Lily questioned.

"It will always be a bad time. I know we're young but, I love you. And I don't want to wait. What do you say?"

They looked into each other's eyes: "yes. But I like the name Harry." James smiled and broke into a laugh.

"I love the name."


	4. Familiar Faces

Lily made the effect of apparating to Hogwart's train station, so Harry could glaze in amazement of the place he will call home for so long. A carriage awaited them to take them up the castle, but Harry wanted to walk. So they did.

The morning sun caused the castle to be an eclipse, but it looked beautiful. The grounds were covered in forest, they sound of hooves glamping fast became a dominant sound. A herd of centras ran in front of them.

The young boy was taken back, scared of the new sight. But as he saw baby centra slow down to look at him he didn't feel as frightened.

The young four legged creature slow down to get a better at Harry and moved closer towards him. He smiled at Harry, so Harry returned the gesture. Lily smiled at her son, this life was meant for him, he had grown up with very little exposure to the magical world because of being on the run. But seeing Harry as happy as he was Lily knew she could never take him away from this life, he was too much like his father.

After the herd left they continued to walk over the hill and towards the castle. As the approached the Main Entrance doors, Lily stopped and remember the last time she was here.

It was the two days before she went on the run. James and Lily had attended an Order's meeting, with the rest of the Marauders.

"It getting bad out there James, you need to be careful."

"I will Frank. But you guys need to be more aware now you have a baby on the way." Prongs put a hand of support on Frank's shoulder, while looking at the happy couple. Frank and Alice just looked at each other smiling and laughing. They couldn't believe that they were pregnant, "it's very early on but we're going to protect him until the day will die." Alice commented, they knew what could happen in the end.

The meeting was over the prophecy, it was recent; very recent. Causing any parents to be on the lookout, but most of all Frank and Alice. They knew it was most likely them. They were scared. Frightened. But they were never going to give up.

"How is it going Lily? Have you still got that bug?" Sirius asked Lily on the other side of the room.

"Yeah, nothing seems to be getting rid of it. But it will pass." Lily while consuming a biscuit. "How is it going with Remus, have you told James yet?"

"No, I don't want to tell him yet. It still quite early." Sirius used as an excuse.

"It's been six months, you need to tell him. I know it's weird for you guys, but he deserve to know he is your brother."

"I know, I know. I'll tell him on Sunday, it gives me three days to come up with what I'm going to say to him." Sirius stated.

"Good idea. What about this prophecy then? I mean, think about it, could you imagine being the mother of the chosen one? I would not let him out of sight. EVER. My baby will not become a victim in this war. I can only imagine what Frank and Alice are going through." Lily said as she gazed over to where her husband was talking to Frank and Alice.

"But think about it, the baby will save us. All of us, no more war, no more fighting. Muggleborns won't be taken and killed on a daily basis. There are too many advantages for everyone, the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few."

"Are you using quotes against me Padfoot? You have been spending way too much time with Remus."

"Shut up." they both laughed at each other.

That was the last time Lily was in the castle. The castle she had once called home, nothing made her happier than to be back; given the circumstances. It's features were still the same as Lily had remembered them, the stones old and strong, each part of the castle soften by the welcoming smell of the feast from the kitchen. The fragrance from yesterday's roast beef filled the senses of Lily and Harry, their taste buds tingled at the hope of tasting fluffy Yorkshire puddings. The sound of breeze passing through the whomping willow relaxed their heart beats until they were in a state of pure tranquility, there was no where better than Hogwarts.

The redhead women had, first the time in years, felt safe. On the other hand, Lily didn't want to open the door and have to explain her action to anyone; not even Dumbledore. She had learnt to live with her decisions she had made over the last twelve years, out of safety for her son. Even though she had hated not turning to anyone she loved. It pained her the most, she knew that the second the doors were open Dumbledore would tell her to turn to James and tell him everything, but she couldn't. Not after all this time passing, he could never forgive her for that. However, reality hit her, she was doing this for Harry now; not herself. For his safety and so he could live the life she always dreamed for him to have. Lily inhaled allowing her whole body to relaxed once more, and with doing so all her shame and feelings towards the situation were pushed out of the way.

She kneeled before her son and looked into his emerald eyes that resembled her own, "Are you ready for a new chapter?" Harry looked back and his mother and smiled. This is what he had been waiting for, so many years he didn't understand why his mother was so protective of him; but now he could finally get the answers. He nodded in reply, Lily turned and opened the door to the Great Hall.

It was the coming towards the end of the Summer Holidays, so Lily hoped there was only Dumbledore roaming the Castle. All students would be enjoying the holidays and sleeping all day everyday until they would be back at school, and the teachers they would be far away from the castle enjoying their freedom and preparing their vocal chords to do a lot of shouting again.

The two of them walked through the Great Hall, Harry amazed and Lily smiling at her memories.

"Why is the ceiling like that mum?" Harry asked as he pointed at the ceiling,

"It's actually enchanted to look like that, it's magical isn't it?" Harry just gaped at the ceiling.

They continuing walking through the empty hall and began climbing the stairs towards the Headmaster's office. The eagle stood guard of the passage, like a warrior protecting his king, the stone work won't move. Harry stood very still aside his mother, he didn't know what she was going to do; so he stayed there patiently waiting for her next move. However, she didn't walk forward like he thought she was going to do, she spoke instead "Licorice Allsorts". Harry knew what is was, it was the name of his third favourite muggle sweet, but what was it going to do?

The stones began to move in an anticlockwise direction as a cork coming out o a bottle to reveal a staircase higher up the already tall tower.

"Mum where are we going?" Harry whispered following his mother up the spiral staircase.

"We're going to see the headmaster of the school." Harry was taken back, _I'm going to meet my headmaster looking like this? I have been wearing this stuff all day. What will he think of me?_ Harry tried to sort out his hair as he walked up the stairs, so he was presentable. It was hard enough with his jet black being curly and messy on a good day.

They had reached the door to the headmaster's office. On the door, it had engraved 'Headmaster of Hogwarts: Albus Dumbledore' Lily knocked loudly just above the engraving.

"Come in." a voice on the other side of the door instructed.

The door automatically opened uncovered a huge office dressed from head to toe with paintings.

"Lily Potter?" an old man questioned from behind the desk. Harry was confused, he thought he mother's name was 'Lily Evans', yet his mother was responding to the name his man was giving her.

Dumbledore was overjoyed from seeing Lily again that he leaped out of his chair and wrapped his arms around her, squeezing her tight as if he wasn't going to let go. "Albus, it's been to long."

"Definitely." He replied, he looked down at the young boy standing behind Lily, "is this him? Is this your son?"

They pulled away from the hug and Dumbledore bent down look at the boy.

"Albus this is Harry and Harry this is Professor Dumbledore your headmaster." Harry held out his hand to shake the stranger,

"It's nice to me-" Harry was interrupted by his Headmaster hugging him.

"I'm sorry Harry, I'm a hugger." he pulled away to get a better look at the boy. "Wow, you do look a lot like your father."

Harry's mind was put onto full attention mode, he wanted to know all he could about his father. All he knew was that his mum and dad met while they were at school, and his mother found out she was pregnant when she wasn't with his father. Harry was never able to get any information out of his mother, the moment he would ask questions about her past - his mother would just mumble something and leave the room. And now Harry found out he looks like his father, it was a step closer. Harry loved his mother, but he hated the lying and secrets; mother kept telling him it was for his safety and that she would explain when he needed to know, but that had never happened.

Lily coughed to signal to Dumbledore to say no more. Albus received the hint but ignored it, "Have you gone to go and see James yet?" Dumbledore continued. Harry's head turned quickly to face his mother, who looked shocked and angry.

"No we haven't, nor are we planning to." Lily replied, her face increasing its redness to emphasis how angry she was.

"Why not?" Dumbledore asked ignoring Lily once again.

"Because he won't want to see us." Lily stated avoiding eye contact with her son who was looking so happy at the idea of meeting his father. "Changing the subject. While Harry and I are here we are going to be needing different names, to avoid anyone from recognising us."

"Yes, good idea. Any names in mind?" Dumbledore questioned.

"For Harry, I think it's best if he still has his first name so he responds to it, so Harry …. Smith."

"So, Harry Smith. And your name Lily?"

"Iris Evans." Lily replied, she still liked the idea of being named after a flower and thought 'Rose' was to cringey.

"Oki dokey, so from now on all teachers and students will know you by these names. Don't tell anyone of your true identity for your own safety." Dumbledore instructed, Harry was still confused, why couldn't he tell people who he was? Who was he to wizards, that he had to hide his identity? How come his mother never told him anything?

Harry turned to his mother while a look saying 'can you please tell me now?', Lily knew she needed to give him an explanation. Even if it wasn't the full truth he needed to know something,

"Harry I think it's better if we talk about this so you understand what's going on."

"Okay. Why am I so important that no one can know who I am?" Harry had been dying to ask that question for a while, even from a young age he would have to different names while he was in America. He never understood why, only that it was really important no one found out.

"Many years ago, there was a prophecy saying that a young wizard would save us. And from what we can tell it's you. That's why I taught you all that magic outside of school, to help prepare you."

"Okay, but what am I meant to save us from?" Harry questioned. Lily turned her head, she didn't want to tell her son about You-Know-Who, he didn't need to know about him.

"An awful wizard who wants to rule over everyone." Dumbledore answered, it was the easiest way to put it, but also avoid how horrific he really is.

"So let me get this right. You have trained me from when I was a little baby loads of magic to help protect the rest of the wizarding world from a 'very evil man'." Harry thought about what he had just said out loud, it had to be ridiculous, it sounded like something from a muggle comic book. "So why were we not with dad then? Why isn't he aware that I was born?"

"Becau- that isn't important information that you need to know. Your father doesn't need to be brought into this."

"But why did you leave before he knew you were pregnant? Did you not love him or something!?" Harry screamed at his mother, Lily was shocked. It was the question she thought she would have to answer, however not coming from her son, but her husband.

"I will not discuss anymore on the situation. I think it's best if you get some sleep we have had a long day." Lily suggested, she was extremely calm given what she was just asked. Harry had for the last few years get a bit of a temper, Lily didn't know where they came from she thought it was just part of growing up. However, it was part of Voldemort taking over Harry.

*Knock *Knock

"Come in." Dumbledore instructed once again. Harry and Lily didn't know who it could be, they thought only Dumbledore was in the castle.

A man opened the door and began with "I'm sorry Albus, I thought I heard shouting-", the new man stopped and stared at Lily, he didn't know what to do. "Lily."

It was Remus. He stared her confused and shocked, Lily opened her mouth to explain but said nothing. She couldn't explain anything, her body didn't know how to explain twelve years of not seeing one of her best friends into a couple of seconds. Without another word Remus ran towards Lily, picked her up and hugged her, "I'm so happy to know you're alive." Lily began to cry, she missed him so much. Every time she wanted to talk to about Harry or work related she wanted to tell Remus; but she couldn't.

"I'm so sorry I didn't tell you." Lily bellowed into his shoulder.

"You have a lot of explaining to do." Remus' voice became stern and forceful, he was angry. He hadn't seen or heard from her in twelve years and thought she was dead, and now she was standing in front of her. "Where have you been?" he noticed Harry in the corner. "Who is this?"

"I know you deserve all the answers, not right now."

"Bullshit! Do you know what has happened to James over the last twelve years? Do you know what you did to him? He literally died, he became a clone of himself. He buried himself into his work, and he has never come back out." Remus never swore but he was more than angry, he was fuming. "I'm assuming this is your son?"

"How did you know that?" Lily muttered,

"James saw you leaving the sweet shop yesterday. Can't you see he already knows you're here and alive, and he has already been drinking all night to try and get over you. So can you please tell me everything."

Lily knew she couldn't get out of it so she turned to Harry and said, "I think it's time for you to go to bed Harry. We'll talk in the morning." Harry knew he wasn't going to find out anymore thing about his dad, so he nodded in agreement.

"I'll have one of the house elves take you to your dorms." Dumbledore added, Harry left the room quickly and quietly without another word.

"That wasn't necessary in front of my son." Remus knew his behaviour was too angry and irrational, ever since Lily had left no one had told him off for it.

"I'm sorry. It was unnecessary, but not uncalled for. Where have you been all these years? Do you know what happened to Frank and Alice last week?"

"To answer those two questions, America and yes. I know what happened to them, that's why I'm back."

"Just to attend their funeral?" Remus asked.

"Not just to attend the funeral, I'm moving back to England- for good." Lily commented.

"Does James know any of this?" Remus questioned again,

"Look can we just for a walk on the grounds? I need some air and I'll explain as well as I can."

Remus agreed, he needed to get some air. He had unleashed twelve years of anger out on his friend in a matter of minutes.

They walked in silence out of the office and out of the main entrance, they didn't know how to talk to each other. Lily had a peace offering to Remus, but she would give to him at a later date, it wasn't the time or place to give it to him. They sat down on the heathland looking over the lake before the two of them started talking to each other again,

"I'm sorry, I know I should have told you." she didn't want to make any excuses.

"Why didn't you?" Remus replied calmly,

"I was on the run for a while before I stopped at settle down. And when I did stop running, I didn't want to get any of you involved, the danger that I was in at the time was … a lot and I didn't want any of you to get hurt." Lily knew this was true, but wasn't the really reason why she never got into contact with James.

"We would have been there for you no matter what." Remus stated. "We would have never let you go through what you did on your own. Why did you go on the run though?"

"The muggleborn attacks." Lily swallowed trying to steady herself before talking, "they targeted me. Given who my husband was as well as my position at the hospital. They sent me a warning note at work, saying they were watching me. I didn't tell James because he was really busy with work, and Sirius had come to visit you at work. But then that day after work as I walked home, they attacked me. I got away but I knew I had to leave…" Lily continued to look at the lake in front of her, tears streamed down her face, Remus turned to look at her. He had no idea what happened to her.

"I've never said that out loud before." she turned to face Moony. "I'm sorry I've never got in contact. I should have, but there was a point where I thought you would hate me if I reached out. So I just didn't."

"But what about your son? Does he have a father?"

"You know who the father is, I never cheated on James. Just neither of them know about each other."

"He has a right to know, so does your son."

"His name is Harry, your Godson's name is Harry James Potter. Both you and Sirius are Godparents."

"You made us Godparents?" Remus was overfilled with joy, he couldn't contain it.

"Of course, Harry doesn't know. He has never met you before tonight, but you are." Lily smiled, it had been so long since she had a conservation with Remus. He was a brother to her, someone she could turn to, now more than ever.

The sun had hit the highest point in the sky; it was midday. Lily hadn't slept 36 hours and the funeral was in four hours.

"Are you going to go to the funeral today?" Remus asked.

"Yes. I need to say goodbye to them." Lily replied. It was time to pay her respects to the Longbottom family.

"You know James is going to be there?" Lily nodded. She wasn't ready to start fighting with James. "Is Harry going to come?"

"No he is probably still asleep, he didn't know them. It would be wrong to take him for no reason. Dumbledore can look after him."


	5. Longbottom's funeral

The day had turned out to be a cloudy and misty day for the funeral. The English weather always lives up to its full potential. However, on that day it wasn't a big concern, James had managed to drag himself off the sofa and into the church to help Sirius and Peter setup for the funeral.

"When is Remus meant to be getting here?" James mumbled from behind his sunglasses. His hangover had only followed him from the sofa, like the angel of death himself.

Most of the flowers had already been delivered and setup, but the small touches were the only things that needed to happen. The memorial booklet had to be put on each seat:

 _In loving memory of Frank, Alice and Neville Longbottom._

 _They will always be missed by family and friends alike._

The booklet filled James will anger. _They shouldn't be dead._ James thought to himself. _Why does it have to be them who are dead? They were so happy as a family, no lies, no secrets, only fucking love._ James through the booklet on the floor.

"No need for any of that James." came a familiar voice from behind,

"Remus?" James questioned as he turned round. And there standing by the church door was Remus. All of the other Marauders dropped what they were doing and ran at each other for a group hug.

"How are we doing today?" Remus asked not expected a hopeful reply.

As they released each Marauder sunk their head, but none of them replied. "If anything today that is a celebration of their lives. Just remember that." Remus put a supporting hand on James' shoulder, he needed it the most.

The past few days had been the worst for him, Lily had given Remus clear instructions to not tell James anything. So as far as James knew, his wife had has been alive all this time- not told him, and has been busy raising someone else's child instead of his. So life wasn't happy for James.

"I thought you were coming earlier, Moony." Peter asked.

"Yeah I got held up at Hogwarts, Dumbledore wanted to talk to me." Remus hated lying to his friends but it wasn't his secret to tell. Lily would tell them when she was ready.

"Did you get my letter about Lily?" Sirius prompted. The subject Remus was hoping to avoid, but it was going to come up in conservation at some point.

"Yeah, it cannot be her though. She has been gone for too long." Remus said trying to wipe it off and get rid of the subject.

"It was her." James stated bluntly, he wasn't going to have anyone tell him it wasn't her.

"I believe you James." Peter muttered, he didn't want to believe it but James won't back down from something he was never wrong. Wormtail also saw it as an opportunity to stay on James' good side, he didn't know how long it would be until the everyone found out what he did.

People started to arrive at the church, the boys put their business to one side and greeted the friends that had turned up. Family friends that the boys hadn't seen in years, order members as well as other aurors from James' department. Not to mention Hogwart students from Frank and Alice's year group, so by the time the service was about to start the church was full. The Marauders took up their seats at the front of the church, James laughed to himself. Frank hated church, yet this is how he is going to be remembered.

"We're all gathered here today to remember the Longbottom family….."

*Ker-clink *Ker-clink

Someone was late, a female for that matter. The sound of heels on a stone flooring became louder and louder, the lady swiftly moved her way to the back of the chapel to avoid eye contact. She wore a black knee length dress, with a black coat, sunglasses and hat to match. She didn't want to be looked at or recognised, as her face was either covered by the sunglasses or the hat; she had thought this out perfectly. It was Lily trying to hid from everyone she knew.

The service continued for a prolonged period of time, Lily thought the service kept dwelling on how little time they had together, "they were so young to die." and "Neville youth made him only see the world in its purest form."

Alice would have hated this, before Lily went on the run Alice said to her one evening, "if I ever go first, make sure it's a party. Not one of these boring thing where people cry and hope we didn't feel any pain."

It would have been Alice's worst nightmare, Lily thought to herself that if Alice was there she wouldn't be able to stop her from laughing.

"Now this is the part of the service where we go out to the graves of the deceased and pay respect to them." proclaimed the priest as he walked through the doors of the church.

Everyone in each row followed after him, Lily waited until everyone in the church had gone before following at a distance. She didn't want any drama to go down between anyone so she kept her distance, the rest of the service continued around the graves. Lily lingered behind a tree close enough to hear what was happening, and far enough away so no one could recognise her.

Unfortunately, it was too late. Sirius had spotted her, he didn't make a move or do anything until the service was finished. Suddenly, he apparated behind her. Tears had been raining down her face throughout the service, "damn it Alice why did you have to go first?" Lily commented out loud to herself, not knowing her best friend was behind her. He lightly tapped her on the shoulder, "Lily? Is it really you?" Sirius started crying, "please God let it be you." she removed her hat and glasses to relieve his friend.

"Yes. It is me. I missed you so much." she jumped on him and hugged him at the same time.

"It's good to see you." he laughed through the tears, Lily began to laugh.

"It's good to see you too, sorry Remus was late today. That was my fault." Lily apologised.

"I don't give a shit about that right now."

In the distance, the service began to disperse. "I can't see James yet. I'm not ready." Lily hyperventilated, Sirius tried to calm her down.

"Relax. Breath. I have put things into play to make sure you don't have to talk to him right now." he slowly revealed the invisibility cloak from his pocket and threw it over the two of them.

"Now this take me back." Lily giggled. "I'm assuming Remus has told you everything I told him."

"Well, you did tell him not to tell James. You didn't say anything about your favourite Sirius."

"Of course." Lily smiled at him.

"Before we go any further I want to apologise. You told me that people were following you and I did nothing. I should have been with you-"

"Now you stop that." Lily interrupted, Sirius had started to cry. Lily cupped his face with her hands wiping away the tear with her thumb. "We both know I told you not to."

"Yeah but you would have been safe. With us. With your family. But I didn't and now you and Harry have been facing the consequences."

"Shhh, we're both fine. We are both better now we are home." Lily whispered to relax Sirius.

"Are you coming home then? To the house?" Sirius asked hopeful about the answer.

"No Sirius, that isn't my home anymore. It was before but…." Lily thought about all the time that had passed, "..but it's not anymore."


	6. Memories

It had been a couple of days since the funeral, and between that time all Lily and Harry did was sleep and eat. Remus showed Harry around the castle and handed him the Marauders Map for safe keeping; completely against the will of Lily.

Lily had started to plan her lessons; mostly the older years as it was more important for them. However, she enjoyed planning the lessons, and she was looking forward to teaching.

On the other hand, a lot of planning was going into what she was going to say to James. It had been a lifetime since they had last spoken, she didn't know what to say or how to apologize. She didn't want to talk to him, not with this much hatred towards her going on. Her mind began to drift:

"Peter, I need James. I need him." at that moment she truly did needed him, after she explained herself to Peter he went to go and get him. It was dead quiet, nothing move. Even the water fountain behind Lily was still and lifeless.

Lily sat on the corner of the waterfall wiping away her tears. _James is coming. James is going to be here any minute._ She began to rock herself back and forth using only those words of comfort. All she wanted was her husband next to her, to know he was on his way was a comfort in itself. The inactive waterfall began to ripple.

Suddenly there was an apparition behind her. Lily lifted her head instantly. _James?_ Without thinking she turned round hoping to see the love of her life; when it was Voldemort. Once realising who it was, Lily quickly used her right hand to grab her wand from her left jean pocket. But it was too late. "Crucio!" he screamed at the muggleborn. Lily fell to the floor in agony, everyone of her nerve cell was affected by the dark curse. Her whole body screamed out in pain, but her mouth had no words. Lily felt like every part of her body was had a nail in it being pulled in and out. He released her from the curse only to mock her, " How dare you. You thought that you, as a mudblood, you could get away from me? The Dark Lord? The most powerful wizard ever to walk on this earth. I knew mudbloods were stupid, but this is a new level." Lily crawled towards her wand, just an arm reach away so she slowly moved so that he wouldn't notice. She put her body over the wand to hid it from him. She muttered.

"Speak up you stupid girl."

"You're wrong. The prophecy will come true and you will be dead, because you don't know love." Voldemort rolled his eyes.

"You think I don't know about the prophecy. I've already got that under control. There is no children that will be able to defeat me. Now I'm tired of your talking and speaking about hope. Say hello to your muggle parents." he point his wand in between her eyes just where she could see it, as well as look at her killer in the eye. Lily gripped her wand that was now under her right thigh,

"Avada -" Voldemort was blinded with a piercing light from muggleborn's wand. She saw her opportunity and began to sprint towards cover.

Now Voldemort was pissed. With Lily's back turned he shouted her doom, "Avada Kedavra!" what he expected to happen didn't happen. The light emerging from the victim was not green yet blue, also the origin of the explosion of light wasn't the heart but it originated from her stomach. The explosion of light and power caused both Lily and Voldemort to fly away from each other.

Lily awoke first, and found her attacker still unconscious. She was too scared to check his prognosis so out of fear she disappeared from the scene.

She didn't want to go and face her past. She had been running from it for twelve years, she didn't want to go up against James. Lily didn't want to explain her decisions to him.

"Lily. Are you okay? You seem to be day dreaming." Remus stated as he opened her classroom door slightly.

"Indeed."

"Is everything okay?" Remus repeated.

"Never better."

As Lily was haunted by her memories, Remus showed Harry around the castle.

"So you know who my father is? His name is James, isn't it?" Harry asked as they went through the dungeons. Remus' eyes widen, he didn't know what to say, or what he was allowed to say. He thought to himself, _Lily couldn't of told him a lot as he is asking me. What does he know, what can he know?_

"Yes that's correct. What do you know about him?" Remus asked casually.

"I know he went to school here. And I know he likes quidditch, mum says that who I got it from. I also know I look like him, and that he lives in England."

"All of that is true. He loves quidditch." Remus didn't ask anything else. He didn't want to encourage Harry.

"Can you take me to meet him?" Harry prompted.

"That's not a good idea." Remus answered.

"Why not? Is it because he doesn't know I'm his son."

"Partly. I think it's best if your mum takes you to go and see him." Remus suggested.

"She won't. When she said that she was going to sort out all this stuff, she had this look on her face. It's look that she gets, where she will try and do it but, it never actually happens."

"She will do it."

"She won't, and the family that I keep hearing you guys whisper about will never come together. It's just not enough of a push to get her to do it. She too scared."

"Your mother is one of the bravest people I know, don't bad mouth her."

"I'm just saying. I don't mean to bad mouth her, I love her. But this is just what my mum does."


	7. Letters to home

That night Remus thought to himself, _what if Lily never makes the bridge between herself and James? Am I meant to do something? Do I have the right to do so?_

Remus' family had been broken since Lily had disappeared. And only now had they started to talk to each other and realise all the good times that have passed.

He couldn't decide. He didn't want to be the one to cause a fight, nor the ending of the family. He wanted to know what to do. So he sent his boyfriend a letter asking for help on the situation:

 _Padfoot,_

 _Over the last couple of days, I have been able to talk to Harry. He seems nice, a lot like James in that way but not really aware of any risks he takes, again a lot like our dear Prongs. But he said something today that startled me, he mention that from what he knew about his mother (Lily), that she wouldn't talk to James. He said it in a way that he wasn't joking and that make some sort of sense. As if she was going to try her hardest to talk to him, but then it never actually happens. I don't really know, but it made sense. What if they never do talk to each other again. I don't want to discard this information, nor do I want to use this as my only source._

 _I want our family to be back together. It's been too long since our last Sunday roast, where we laugh and mock each other. Especially when Wormtail brought his new girlfriend along all those years ago. James took it upon himself to tell every humiliating story possible about the poor bastard. I want that back, maybe not the best example, however all of us laughing again eating food; that's what I want the family back today again. James hasn't eaten a proper meal in years, no one had told him any of this, because it would have been Lily's job to keep him in line. And since she disappeared, he has been absent._

 _Do you think I should do anything? Do you think Lily will do something? I don't want to wait around if she isn't going to fix the family. She is the only one who can. James is lost, he has been since she went, the only one who can bring him back is his wife and the mother of his son._

 _P.s. I haven't heard from you in the last couple of days. Is everyone okay after the funeral? What about James?_

 _All my love,_

 _Moony_

Remus sent off the owl with the letter, but still continued to ponder. He didn't know how long it would be for a reply so he began to pass the length of his office. Much time had passed, but the werewolf didn't notice until his owl returned with a letter and reminding him of the sunrise that was emerging outside of the window.

He kindly took the letter that was in the bird's mouth as he read the cover. 'awesomest defence against the dark arts teacher going' Remus rolled his eyes and sighed. He wanted to be with Sirius right now and talk to him face to face but he couldn't, he had too much school planning to do to leave the school property.

Remus later realised that it was stupid to think this has he had just wasted most of an evening sending a letter anyway.

 _ **Moony,**_

 _ **What do you think of my new pen? It makes everything look big and bold. Don't worry I know what you are going to say 'it's amazing, and a good use of time' and I also know you meant that sarcastically. Thanks for that, that was very nice of my boyfriend.**_

 _ **Getting back to the point, if we have to go to war to get those two to talk so be it. That is what we will do! I am not having us come this far for them not to talk it out and move past this. We have gone through too much together to not all end up in a lounge in fifty years shouting at each other about the good old times. If I have to get a ninja warrior to do the dirty work then that can potentially happen; I do know a guy.**_

 _ **But we have to do something. We can't let them act so childish.**_

 _ **P.S. everyone is okay. James went back to work the day after the funeral, so I haven't really seen him. Wormtail has been away for the last couple of days. I actually don't know where he is, I should probably check up on him.**_

 _ **From the prettiest man on the planet,**_

 _ **Padfoot.**_

Remus knew he was right. Not exactly in the way Padfoot described, but something had to be done. This wasn't just about the two of them anymore but the whole family: James, Lily, Sirius, Harry, Peter and himself. That was the family and nothing was going to change that.


	8. His wand

It was the day before term started and Harry wanted to go shopping to get all his new school stuff.

From a young age, his mother had taught him magic on the side with a spare wand she had. But today was the day he was going to get his own, he couldn't wait to be able to have his own. Other wizards can be identified by their wands according to their personality, the wand doesn't just pick the person but also reflects their true inner self. This had always fascinated Harry, and lead to a couple of times him trying to analyse his mum from just hold her wand. He was right most of the time, he could tell when she started to say, "shut up." as if to dismiss his conclusion.

First Harry wanted to get all the other things for school before the wand, so he went into books shops along diagon alley, cauldron shops and so on. Now he came face to face with 'the wizarding pets for wizards', he hadn't decided what creature he was going to get. A toad? A cat? Or an owl?

He really wanted either a cat or an owl, but he couldn't decide. His mum kept repeating, "decide when you get there. You might choose something completely different." some wise words from his mother.

He started from the beginning of the cat aisle and moved his way along. The shop was filled to ceiling with animals making and annoying sounds, Harry was amazed at the choice. He looked back and forth, one of them caught his eye, the name tag read 'Crookshanks', the extremely fluffy animal purred and leant up against the cage. Harry began to pet him, _this could be the one,_ Harry thought, _but I just need to check on the owls just to make sure._ He continued walking and turned left. The meows suddenly turned into birds chirping and screeching, it was ear bleedingly painful to listen to. But he continued on in his quest, as if he was on an adventure.

He lurked along the aisles, like a lion surveying his prey. He raced his hands over the cages, scanning over each owl. But then he saw her, 'Hedwig'. She was beautiful, white with little hints of black speckles. Her eyes dazzled like amber flakes in the dark cage. "Mum, come look at this." he pointed at the cage, his heart was set of her, and her was to his.

"Wow, he is beautiful."

"It's a she, mum. She's a female."

"Shit. Sorry." Lily whispered under her breath.

"Can I please have her." Lily just smiled, Harry loved the owl, that was plain to see. When people talk about love at first sight this is what they mean. She agreed, and Harry walked out of the door with an owl grasped in his arms. This was the best day, he had ice cream for lunch, an owl and now on to get his wand. This is moment he had been waited for… his wand.

His mum pointed him in the direction of Ollivander's Wand shop, saying it was an experience that he must have on his own.

Harry prepared himself, this was a big moment for him. He inhaled and heaved the vintage oak door, it weighed as much as a giant. "Hello? Is anyone there?" a man proclaimed behind enormous glasses. Before Harry could answer, the man repeated himself more angry than the last, "who is it? Do you want to buy a wand?"

"Are you Ollivander?" Harry asked without answering the previous question.

"No I'm his apprentice. Ollivander's out for the day."

"I would like to get my first wand please." Harry inquired.

"How old are you, my boy?"

"Eleven, sir." Harry replied quietly. The man began to search the draws like a niffler lurking for gold.

"This one. This is the one." muttered the man. "What's your name dear boy?" as he handed Harry the wand to test.

"Harry …..Smith. Harry Smith."

"Well my name is Yacin O'boyle. Are you muggleborn? I haven't heard of that wizarding family before." Harry was bamboozled, he didn't know what to say, _shit shit shit fuck what do I say? What should I say? What has my mum told people, am I meant to pretend to be a muggleborn? But she wouldn't be a witch then._

"My father is a muggleborn." Harry picked up the wand in front him and began to swish and flick away. BANG! The back aisles of the shop started to screamed.

"Sliencio!" Yacin squealed brandishing his wand towards the screeching draws Harry accidentally charmed. "I don't think that is the one for you. How about this wand?" he bluntly stated.

Harry slowly picked up the wand, more cautiously than the previous attempt. And lightly waved it. The bulb, illuminating the room, started to slowly swell before brutally erupting into thousands of pieces. Harry smiled to himself, he couldn't see Yacin in front of him.

"Lumos." the enraged man's face was highlighted with a piercing white light spitting from the end of his wand.

"I think that's the one." Harry jokingly commented.

"YOU THINK YOU CAN DO MY JOB! YOU THINK YOU KNOW ME! I graduating from wand university with 5 years of intense study of the behaviour of these mystical devices."

"So no then?" Harry mumbled. Yacin grumbled and walked to the back of the shop,

"Could it be?" he pulled out the wand, thought to be the chosen ones. He thought a bit longer, _the power inside this boy is amazing and dangerous, could it be?_ "Here." Yacin focused daringly at the young messy black haired boy.

Harry raised the wand carefully, all went quiet and an electric blue light glowed from each iris. "Well, Merlin's Beard. It's you. You're the chosen one, you must be."

"What do you mean?" Harry questioned quickly, this had been the first time he could to talk to someone and potentially get an answer about something from them.

"We don't speak his name, he must be stop. You must stop him." Yacin begged the boy, "please, you must be the one to stop him."

"Okay. I'll do my best." Harry meant it, he didn't want to have people fear someone this much. How could people be this afraid of You-Know-Who, that they couldn't say his name?

Harry left the shop puzzled and scared. He now realised he had to be the chosen one, for the sake of ordinary wizards living in fear. But how? What could he, an eleven year old boy, do that was more of an impact than adults?


	9. Friends

"Mum what did you say? You want me to go on the train to Hogwarts? But I'm already here." Harry was so confused. Lily and Remus stood at the door of his dorm proclaiming their wisdom.

"Yes, I think it's a good idea. When you get the train for the first time you make your friends. That's how your father and Sirius met." Harry had been hearing a lot about Sirius from Remus, he quite liked the idea of him. However, they hadn't met yet.

"It is always a good experience. We can drop you off and all, if you need." Remus suggested.

"Okay, I'll do it." Harry was up for the opportunity. He wanted to meet other people his age, and find out more about the wizard everyone was afraid of. It had been so long since Harry had a conversation with someone of a similar age to him.

"All aboard!" shouted the driver at the front of the train, at platform 9 ¾. It was 10:25am and the train was five minutes away from leaving. The platform was crammed with loving parents proud of their children, and their children excited at the new chapter of their life they were about to start.

Harry turned back to look at his mother as well as his Godfather, "I'll see you in a couple of hours then?"

"Yes, but don't forget, you can't mention your real name or your family. Just say they died when you were young and that you grew up with your…. auntie and uncle. I'm sure that will be a good cover story."

"Okay, Okay. See you soon. I love you." Harry said looking at his mum who started to cry. This had been a big day for her. She had dreamt about saying goodbye to him on his first day at Hogwarts since she was pregnant; this was her's and James' dream. They had spoken about this many a time while they were trying for a baby.

"What if the baby isn't sad when we say goodbye to us?" Lily asked her husband, as she drank her morning cup of tea.

"Of course they will be, we are their parents. And we're awesome." James answered. "There is no reason for them not to be as upset as you would be."

"How do you know I will be upset?" Lily questioned raising an eyebrow slightly.

"Well, it will satisfy your emotional needs of being a mother."

"That's a bit mean. But also true, I will be wailing so much that day." Lily laughed.

Now that that day had arrived, she was wailing, true, but not with her husband to comfort her. _He's missing out, he's missing out on all the moments we had talked about for hours on end. Placing bets on how each of us would act in a given moment. This isn't right, this isn't fair._

"Mum. Are you okay?" Harry asked placing a comforting hand on hers.

"Yes sweetheart. Just thinking about how proud I am of you." She went to squeeze his cheeks, but he wiggled out of it.

"Bye Mum. Bye Remus." They both waved him away, and Harry got onto the next busy carriage.

The train whistled alerting everyone it of its next operation; moving away from the station. They could see Harry moving through the carriage and finding a cart with only two other students in at the time.

"Were you thinking about James when you were daydreaming?" Remus pondered.

"It was his dream as much as it was mine to see our child on his first train journey to Hogwarts. I feel like I have just robbed him of a memory that he could never have. It's killing me."

"So are you going to reach out to him?"

"After what I just did you to him. He won't talk to me even if I wanted to." Lily answered.

"Does that mean you're not going to reach out to him?"

"I don't know Remus, if I'm truly honest."

Meanwhile on the Hogwarts Express, Harry slowly moved through the carriage trying desperately to find somewhere to sit. He came to the door of a carriage with only two other students in, who would end up being his closest friends in the world: Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley.

"-No, No, No. You're doing it all wrong!" the young girl exclaimed at the other boy. The gingered haired was trying to practise doing his tie, as you could probably tell it wasn't going too well. "Didn't your mother ever teach you how to do a tie?" she continued to mock.

"No! I've never needed to do one." the boy grumbled scrunching his eyebrows together.

"Excuse me. Is it okay if I sit here?" Harry asked, a tiny bit overwhelmed by the other two students.

The girl was the first to reply, happy and full of joy. "Of course. That's no problem what so ever." she stuck out her hand to shake hands with Harry. "I'm Hermione Granger. What's your name?"

"Harry…. Smith." he kept forgetting his fake name, it was quite concerning for him.

"Are you sure you don't seem very sure of your own name?" the frizzy haired student pushed.

"Leave him alone. He's just nervous, because you're interrogating him. I'm Ron Weasley by the way." there was a glare between the two young students as if a ninja battle was about to commence in the cart.

"Do you guys know each other?" Harry asked as an icebreaker. They broke their glare stare to talk to the new boy.

"No, not really. We met when we were passing through the wall to get the platform. She was struggling." Ron lent back in his seat and put his hands behind his head, looking extremely smug with himself.

"No I wasn't. I knew exactly what I was doing." Hermione speedily stated. Ron was too smug and began to close his eyes.

"Sure you did." Ron whispered. The girl rolled her eyes and sighed, she didn't want to lower herself down to his leave; so she dropped it and moved on.

"So are you muggleborn too then Harry?" Hermione asked to take all the attention away from Ron trying to be smart.

"Ummm, yes." Harry slowly exhaled.

"Well it's just because, your last name is the most common muggle last name going. So I'm assuming you're not use to this like me. As I myself am a muggleborn."

"Well, I don't really know. I was raised by muggles, my parents died when I was really young, I never knew them." Harry didn't know what else to say, Hermione had asked him a question he wasn't prepared to answer. The others in the room grew quiet, no one knew what to reply to that.

"I'm sorry for your lose Harry." Hermione commented.

"Me too Harry, that's horrible. Do you know how it-"

"No Ron, don't ask that. Its extremely rude."

"Sorry." he lowered his head in shame, he didn't realise how bad it sounded until he asked.

"I don't like to dwell on the past." Harry said to change the subject.

The sound of a trolley being rolled down the carriage became louder and louder. With a sweet and innocent voice accompanying it, "Anything from the trolley?"

Harry looked at the others to see what they wanted. Ron dropped his head lower, his mother had given him something for the journey; which man him slightly upset.

"I'm alright thanks. You know that the wizards sweet are that similar of the muggles, and if consumed a large quantity the effect would mean higher cholesterol leading to a bigger risk of heart failure." nobody spoke and just glazed in shock at Hermione.

"I'm okay thanks, I've come prepared." Ron opened his pocket to reveal a clump of sandwich.

Harry looked at both of them, "we'll take the lot!"

"Are you sure, the effect could be dire?" Hermione questioned before explaining the implication again.

"We'll take all of the sweets? But with what money?" Ron interrogated.

"I've got it from my Godfather." Harry replied, early that day Remus gave him a sum of Galleons:

"Here take this." Remus slowly slided him a small bag containing Galleons towards Harry. He took the bag but was confused,

"What is this for?"

"To get some sweets on the train. They are exquisite." Remus remember the first time he had tried the Hogwart's express sweets. It was the first year at Hogwarts and hadn't had the pleasure of James or Sirius yet. He found himself in a cart with Marlene who was also a first year along with her friend Lily. That was the first time he met Lily, they talked all the way to Hogwarts and stuffed their faces with chocolate frogs.

The mount of sweets filled the cart, there was little conservation between the two boys as their attention was drawn to the now melting chocolate on their laps. "Who have you got on your card?" Ron peered down at the paper in front.

"Bloody hell, Godric Gryffindor."

"It must be a sign." Ron chuckled to himself.

"Don't be stupid Ron, there is no such thing as a sign."

For hours the three of them talked and got to know each other. As the sky light turned from light to dark, they started to approach Hogsmeade.

Younger students in the carriage would look out of the windows to see what was beyond their reach, but the night sky rained upon them leaving only a blanket of darkness to be seen. A whistle from the train horn indicated that they had arrived at the train station. With the traditions standing in place the first years were led by Hagrid up to the boats and along the lake.

They were sorted into their houses; Harry Smith, Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley went into Gryffindor.

The teachers of the years were introduced; Professor Remus Lupin for Denfense Against the Dark Arts And Professor Iris Evans for Potions.


	10. The Messrs would be proud

The first few days of term had past, so finding classes and knowing people's names were coming easier to Harry and his friends.

"Ron, psssst." Harry whispered across the room of his dorm at the dead of night. He avoided waking the other boys in the room. Ron only continued to snore like an unconscious troll. Harry repeated but this time louder, after having no response from the sleeping redhead, he scurried across to his new best friend.

"Ron get up." Harry said while shoving Ron violently.

"WHAT!?" Ron scream-whispered from the inside of pillow.

"Look. I want to try show you something." Harry slowly revealed the Marauder's Map he received from Remus.

"That's only a piece of parchment." Ron dismissed, he tried to shut his eyes but Harry wouldn't let him.

"Just wait." Harry looked down at the empty parchment, he began to wave his wand anticlockwise and whispered: "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."

Blotches of blood stain red ink began to surface on the parchment revealing the words:

 **Messrs**

MOONY, WORMTAIL,

PADFOOT & PRONGS

 **are proud to present**

 **The**

MARAUDER'S

MAP

"What is that!?" Ron hissed,

"It's the Marauder's Map. It shows you where everyone is in the castle at anytime." Harry explained. "Look, there's Dumbledore in his office. And Filch." the two boys looked at each other, ever since the caretaker met them he took a loathing to the pair. They wanted to get one up on him.

"What do you say, my fellow friend. Do you think we should, you know, prank him?" Harry turned to his friend with a wicked grin that was not going away anytime soon.

"Of course, Mr Smith. We have to, for the good of the future student of Hogwarts." Ron replied. "What will we do to him though? I don't have anything to prank him with?" Harry inquired.

"Well." finally Ron removed the covers from his legs and walked towards his trunk. " you know Fred and George have been selling prankster devices for years. I decide because they were going to charge me 15 galleons for some stupid smoke screen. So, I took it upon myself to _borrow_ these stink bombs, if I ever needed them. And it seems we have an occasion to use them!"

"That's a brilliant idea. Let's go get him." Harry exclaimed.

The two of them were off, they scuttled out of the dorm and through the portrait. The fat lady's snores faded as they got further from their beds and closer to filch's office. They changed route several times avoiding teachers on patrol, this evening's patrol staff was Professor Mcgonagall and Professor Lupin. Both of the boys really liked Remus, the other day they had a Defense Against the Dark Arts:

Instead of doing something stressful they had a involving lecture about what the course was about,

"Defense Against the Dark Arts is one of the most important and dangerous lessons that can be learnt. As the war has been getting as bad as it has, we have opted to teach this lesson to all students including the first years as it wasn't allowed before to be taught to your year.

The main objective of this lesson is to prepare you for the outside world, where people aren't as forgiving as they are in the classroom. There are spells that others could use against you, which could potentially harm you or worse… kill you. These spells are thankfully illegal in this country and if you were to ever to come into contact with one of the them, you would die. This spell is known as the Killing curse. No one is known to survive it. Not that we know of." Remus turned to look at Harry. The young student was confused, why was Remus glaring at him so intensely? Was there something to it?

Harry and Ron carried on through the labyrinthian castle until they came across a relatively small wooden door, "It's here, this is where he is! Mischief managed!" harry exclaimed giddily, wielding his wand towards the map. The ink on the parchment disintegrated as quickly as it came. "Okay, how are we gonna go about this?" Ron responded. Harry grabbed his wand, "I have an idea, pass me the bomb" Harry requested. Ron, intrigued, handed him the bomb and watched closely. "Wingardium Leviosa!" The stink bomb jutted out of harry's hand, "Blimey Harry, I remember that spell! I see where you're going with this," Ron quietly left the door ajar as harry quickly triggered the timer on the bomb pointed his wand in the door's direction. The bomb slowly floated across and into Argus Filch's sleeping quarters. The boys waited outside, on edge. BOOM! "Argh! Oi, Who's there!" Filch's growls sent the boys running and laughing as they began to make their escape, "Students! Students in the corridors! Students out of bed!" as soon the shouts of a dazed and confused Filch faded away and the boys turned yet another hallway there stood a bewildered Professor of transfiguration, Minerva Mcgonagall "Boys! What on earth are you doing out of bed at this hour!" she shrieked, right as she said this a furious Filch caught up to the three of them, the smell was putrid, even Mcgonagall recoiled in disgust. Harry and Ron knew they were screwed and accepted their fates, their heads facing down in shame and guilt as the onslaught of anger began.


	11. The Potion is the Key

On the other hand, Lily wasn't having any trouble in her class. She wanted to believe she was a cool teacher, and down with the children. She was having some difficult to teach Slytherin and Hufflepuff classes for the sixth years. This was due to a Slytherin called Nicola, she was a very bright however very obsessed with her boyfriend. Who was in Hufflepuff, the two of them reminder Lily of every other girl in her year group when she was her age. They were in love, unfortunately for the rest of the witches and wizards surrounding them, it wasn't a mutual understanding. Often in the middle of classes one of the two of them would ask to go to the toilet, but both would go together and come back together.

Lily thought about her relationship with James, in the early years, but realised they were never that clingy of each other. _Was that the reason why I left without him? Did I not feel, in the moment, able to go to him?_ Lily often pondered what caused her to leave without sending messages to anyone even while working in America. The common reasons were that she was too busy to write a letter or was doing it for the protection of Harry, but they were easier things to say so that people wouldn't hate her. She kept digging for these answer but she never thought that she was going to find them, even if they were somewhere inside there subconscious being.

Furthermore, when it came to teaching Lily had an art to it. She would try to make the subject as interesting as possible, but also as full as of information as she could. This was a difficult skill to try and find the balance, but somehow Lily was getting a lot better at it than most teachers who had been working alongside children for years.

Even when she was trying to teach her own son's class, she avoided picking on him or mentioning him at any point during the lesson. It was a lot easier for the younger years, such as first and second years, due to the complexity of the course they were working. But this didn't stop Lily from enjoying every moment of teaching. After Harry's introduction lesson to Potions was finished, Lily asked Harry to wait behind. She waited until the room was empty before excitedly whispering, "What did you think? Did I pick on you too much? I wanted to keep it light hearted but also to the point." she waited for the reply of her son to unlock appreciation for teaching further.

"You were amazing mum, I loved it." Harry squealed back.

Lily squealed herself. This is what she loved to do, a profession that pays better than her job in America as well as keeps her closer to the family.

At the end of the day, after dinner that evening, she walked to Remus' office with a little gift she had intended to give him at the beginning a couple of weeks ago; but didn't think it was the right time. However, it was now.

*Knock *Knock. Lily wanted to be polite even though he was probably marking papers or something really boring. "Come in." Proclaimed Remus from the other side of the door. She followed his instructions and opened the door to come into the room. "Lily? What's up?"

"I've been wanting to give you this for a while, actually ever since I got back. But I didn't think it was the right time to do so. It's something that can come in very helpful." she pulled out her pocket a small container, holding a cloudy blue solution.

"What is this Lily?" Remus asked confused by what was in front of him.

"It's a gift, well more really a gift to apologize with and thank you with. I wanted to apologize for never getting into contact with you after I left to go to America. And also I wanted to thank you, I have been putting off talking to James for weeks now, ever since I got back, and now I finally feel like I am ready to talk to him. Like I have the confidence to tell him about our son and tell him how important he is to the survival of the wizarding world." Lily lectured.

"Yeah, but what is this?" Remus repeated.

"It's a permanent solution to lycanthropy. It stop you from being a werewolf, for forever."

"What? How the fuck did you get hold of this? How do I know it even works?" Remus screamed.

"I know it does. Because I designed and made it."

"What are you going on about?"

"When I was leaving in America, I picked up an amazing job that allowed me to do the one thing that I was planning on doing for years. Cure this disease. And I did. It took years of work, and crap money, but we did it. The potion will be out on sale in the next couple of months. They just have to make the mass production of it now, so when I left I took the solution as well as the ingredients. To make this." she placed the small jar on the desk and push it towards Remus. "You don't have to take it now or decide now. I know that the Marauders have been a very big part of your life, so take all the time you need to know what you want to do with it. But it is there for you as a permanent solution." Remus was shocked, he didn't know what to say or do. Lily decided the best thing to do was to leave him on his know to think about all he has done. "By the way, I just want to say thank you again for being so supportive of the James stuff." Lily closed the door as she left the office, she thought about when she first wanted to cure the disease:

"How is Remus doing with the Moon last night?" Lily asked while passing James a cup of tea.

"Alright, it just that is seems to be getting no better with his age. I thought the older you get, the easier it would be on the mind and body; but it's the same if not worse."

"Is there anything we can do to help him?" Lily questioned.

"Apart from taking the potion he does, with the help and support we give him during the nights of the full moon." James answered, "there's not that much that can be done. Most of the medical research on this disease aren't trying to find a cure. To them, it's apparently a disgrace, a disgust to be like this. To be honest it's disgusting behaviour."

"I don't know how people can be so dismissive of others no matter their condition. I really want to do something to help." her husband smiled at her, kissed her on forehead,

"you're already giving him so much support."

"I mean, I wanted to find a cure." Lily confessed. James turned to face his wife,

"are you sure you can do that?"

"I think I can. If I really focused." James picked her up and both began to squeal in happiness.

"Merlin, I love you so much. You have such a good heart. I need to go tell Moony."

"You can't tell him until we have something to tell him. We have to wait. Please, I don't want to get his hopes up and then have to crush them."

From that day on, Lily did everything she could to find the cure. But it ended up taking longer than she expected. But now they had the cure, and everything is going to be fine.

Meanwhile, back in Remus' office, he continued to stare at the potion container. He felt so bad for what he had now put into action with Sirius, he finally got off his chair and ran into the fireplace and shouted, "Potter manor!" he instantly appeared in the fireplace of James' house vigorously scanning each and every room for his partner. _Where are you? Where could you be? I need to speak to you now!_

"Sirius. We need to talk now. We can't put the plan into motion. Lily is going to talk to James on her own. We can't interfere."

Sirius was very quiet, he didn't expect Remus to say this. "I'm sorry but it's too late. I've already put it into motion. We can do nothing to stop it."


	12. James finds out about Lily

Remus and Sirius just stared at each other. Neither one of them knew what to say or do.

After telling the pair of them had sent each other their letters, and being the marauders that they were, they knew they needed to go and do something about it the situation. So over the last week they had been planning a scheme to force the Lily and James' to talk to each other, because they knew the second they met, they knew they would finally talk to each other. Lily wanted to talk to him but forgot how to, and James was pissed at her because he didn't know the full story.

So they made an elaborate plan to force the two of them to see each other and finally talk.

"What are you saying Sirius?" James confusedly question his best friend.

"I have a source that has told me, that at Hogwarts there might be a teacher who knows something about the Longbottom case."

"If you're talking about going to visit Remus you should have just said." James laughed.

"Ah-ah-ah. Very funny. But I'm serious, we have to go and check it out." Sirius instructed, he really needed James to talk him honestly for he plan to work.

"Dumbledore would have told me if someone knew anything about the Longbottom case. You know he is quite a smart person." James dismissed.

"Look at me." he pulled James' face inches away from his own. "I'm not lying and this source wouldn't lie either. So believe me when I tell you, we need to check it out. We believe it is the new Potion's teacher"

"Well if it is that important then we will go and check this out. I'll do it in the morning, it's been a long day, and I still think you are just messing me around." James sighed as he walked up the grand stairs to bed.

Sirius, happy with the scheme that was going to unfold, sat down with a firewhiskey in his hand waiting for the morning sun to arise. Unfortunately, his state of tranquility was obliterated when his other half ran into the room screaming, "Sirius. We need to talk now. We can't put the plan into motion. Lily is going to talk to James on her own. We can't interfere."

"I'm sorry but it's too late. I've already put it into motion. We can't do anything to stop it."

"What? What do you mean? How have you put it into motion, you weren't meant to do it until tomorrow morning."

"I started it a bit earlier." Sirius shrugged.

"We can't have them two meet. Not just yet."

Since Remus came in the house, James could hear the shouting from his bedroom and emerged from his bed. "What's going on down there? Is that you Remus?" James grumbled from the top of the stairs. He started to walk down the stairs, rubbing face with his hand and almost knocking his glasses off from his face. It was around eight in the morning, he didn't want to be up; but he had always been a light sleeper. And he wanted to see Remus, considering he hadn't seen his friend in such a long period of time. "Remus is that you?" he questioned again.

Remus turned on his heels slowly to face the stairs as James slumped down the steps. "Yeah, James it's me." he had a forced smile over his face, he didn't want to upset James, but he really didn't want to talk to him at the moment.

"It's really good to see you mate, do you want anything? I'm going to the kitchen."

"Nah, I'm alright. Thanks though."

"I'll have a piece of toast Prongs!" Sirius interjected.

As soon as James was out of earshot, Remus spun back round to face Sirius and began to whisper fiercely at him, "we have to stop him from going."

"We can't. If we do, he will suspect something is up and go anyway." Sirius explained. "There's nothing we can do. Anyway why do you want him to not go all of a sudden?"

"That's not important right now." the werewolf put his hand in his pocket to confirm he still had the potion, and proving it to himself it wasn't just a dream. "Well-, we- we have to do something. We can't just wait around for what is going to come. Ummm," Remus thought about what he could do to slow down the process, and then it hit him. "I've got it. You go and warn Lily about what is going to happen, and I'll distract James so he doesn't go." Sirius jumped up for the sofa, he saw it as a mission, one only he could do.

"I won't fail you Remus!" Sirius exploded. He put his firewhiskey down and headed to the fireplace place, grabbing some powder on his way. He climbed in and nodded to Remus, "HOGWARTS!" with a flash of green light Sirius had vanished and reappeared at Hogwarts, in Dumbledore's office.

"Mr Black? Is that you?" Dumbledore pondered as the man fell out of the fireplace. Black stood up and brushed the ash off his clothes. "You know I gave you access to this fireplace if it was only of extreme importance."

"I know Albus. It is of importance though, long story short. Lily has been hiding from James ever since she got back in the country and doesn't want to confront him as she doesn't want to let him down nor have to have the conversation with him that she had his baby and never told him about Harry, also never telling him that he is the chosen one as well." Sirius only passed to take in a gulp of air and continue, "so me and Remus, sorry correction Remus and I. He would of had my head for that. Anyway we wanted to make a situation where they would talk, so naturally I told him there was someone who knew something about the Longbottom case. So he, of course, leaped at the idea of find their killer. Meaning, he was going to come here, trying to find this person who knows some information. But instead find Lily talk about their differences move on and love each other again, and all have a happy ending." Sirius was panting like a dog. He didn't realize there was so much to the story.

"Well, that sounds like an amazing fairy tale. Do let me know how it all plays out? Also, would you like a some lemon sherbet? I just found it, it's quite delightful." the headmaster offered.

"Oo, I would love some. Thank Albus." Sirius took a handful out of the oversized goblet and poured it all straight into his mouth. Sirius ran out of the door and down the spiral staircase, he didn't need the map anymore, he knew all the shortcuts to Potion's classroom. And the quickest way was through the Great Hall-

What Sirius forgot to check was, the time. If he had, he would have known that it was breakfast at Hogwarts. The former student stood dead in his tracks as he stared at the children stuffing their faces with a full english breakfast, the children had time to look up from the plates to see a older man staring at them from the corner of the Hall. Some of the teachers who were there eating their breakfasts stopped to look at the man as well. He swallowed all the sweets to clear his throat.

"Mr. Black what are you doing here?" asked Professor McGonagall from behind her glasses.

"Oh, I'm just trying to find Professor Evans." Sirius answered with a massive grin on his face.

"She's in her classroom preparing for her lesson. Which will start in 15 minutes."

"Okay, I won't be too long." Sirius lied. He walked through calmly but at a fast pass. After exited the room, he picked up the pass and ran to the Potion's classroom; dodging students as he went. Once he came to the door, he swung it opened and apologized, "I'm sorry to be the one to say this, but-"

"No I'm the one who is sorry. I should have told you about the potion too, you should know as well. But I thought it was best to come from Remus, it's all for his health anyway so I thought you would understand th-" Lily interjected before being cut off again by Sirius,

"What are you going on about?" Sirius was confused about what Lily had just blurted out.

Meanwhile, back in the Potter Manor, James had just left the kitchen clutching a box of muggle cereal and two pieces of toast. "Where's Sirius? I've got his toast for him." James asked Moony.

"He had to go quickly. But I'll eat it for him." Remus grabbed the toast and shoved it in his mouth. He didn't know what to do, but he had to distract him.

"I was talking to Padfoot and he said that there might be someone at Hogwarts who might know something about the Longbottom case."

"Did he? I don't think there is. There's no one who really knew the family that well in the school, of course they know of them, but no like we do. I'm sorry." Remus Babbled.

"He said it was the new Potion's teacher. What do you think?" James question while retrieving cereal from the open box and popping it in his mouth.

Remus thought to himself. _OMG Sirius why did you have to tell him so much? What do I say? I have to come up with something otherwise he will become intrigued._ "No. She's cool, she's really cool. But I don't think she knows about anything. She's lovely and cool though."

"Are you alright Remus?"

"What are you going on about?" Sirius repeated.

"The potion, for Remus that I made. He didn't tell me what she thought about the whole thing, but I'm hoping he decides to use it. You know, so he is no longer a werewolf." Lily explained.

"Remus has a potion to get rid of his lycanthropy? And he hasn't told me. He knew about it and didn't tell me about it. Why didn't he tell me?"

"I thought he did. That's why you came, isn't it?" Lily asked confused with what had just happened. Then it occurred to her, _what if he didn't come see her for that? She had just told Sirius about something that wasn't hers to tell him. It was a conversation both Sirius and Remus needed to decide together, they were a team of course. But now, that was ruined._ "I thought I saw him in his office last. It was hours ago now, but he could still be there." Lily continued, Sirius was blank and lost, thinking about what he had just learnt. His mind was in a different place, and not a good one at that. Lily's final comment gave him an opportunity to leave without being rude or angry.

"Okay, I'll check there." He knew where he was, back at the Potter Manor with James. But this allowed him to leave without another word and get back to them sooner. The young black hair man whipped round and walked out of the classroom door without another word. His brain was pounding and his heart was racing. Every single question towards his situation was going through his head:

What was Remus thinking of doing?

Did he not feel like it was important to tell me?

Do I not get a say in the matter?

Why didn't he tell me?

Sirius slumbered through the corridors back up to Dumbledore's office, without talking or making any eye contact with anyone; including Minerva. She had made a little joke while passing him, but he didn't hear her and continued to shuffle away.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm alright James. No need to worry about me." Remus had always struggled to lie, especially to his best friends. When they were at Hogwarts and before the rest of the Marauders knew about his condition, he had to come up with excuses. This was never his strong point, books and work were his strong points; but not lying. It was killing him that he couldn't tell James that the teacher was Lily. This had led to why Remus spent so little time at the Manor, he found it easier to stay away and use the excuse of work to avoid telling his friend, that his wife and his child (that he doesn't know about) is at Hogwarts.

"Are you sure? You seemed to be acting very strangely." James commented, he knew that something was up, from how Remus was responding. But he knew if his friend wasn't telling him something it was for a reason, he hated not knowing but he could understand. Both of his best friends, Sirius and Remus, had been dating and been in a long term relationship for over ten years. But had never told James. So James always assumed it was because of them never being able to find the right time.

However, this never stopped James from finding out. He knew, of course, for years. Just from their body language towards one another, he thought they made an amazing couple, but was annoyed he was never told. He hated not being in the loop, however sometimes it wasn't his loop to be in.

"Yeah I'm fine. How are you? How is it going for you?" Remus asked changing the subject to avoid anymore weirdness.

"To be honest. Not too bad, the case is coming on slowly but still moving in the forward direction. Are you sure this professor doesn't know anything about the Longbottom case?" James hated that he hadn't solved the Longbottom case, it was eating him up inside. But since, Prongs didn't like the idea of talking about it, he kept it to himself. Every since his wife had disappeared, he had closed up, like a clam, and never really talked about his feelings to anyone. Not the healthiest way to deal with the situation.

"That's good though, at least there is some progress being made." Moony commented ignoring the question hazeled eyed man asked. This was followed by a silence, a dark gloomy silence that couldn't be filled. They both wanted to talk to each other about something but felt like they couldn't.

The fireplace in front of the two men was illuminated in green flames as another Marauder walked into the room. Sirius. Both of them sprung to their feet, "where have you been Padfoot?" James questioned. The expression on his ashy face grew sadder and angrier. He ignored Prongs and turned to face his boyfriend, "when were you going to tell me?"

Remus clicked on immediately, he knew what Sirius knew. And it wasn't good. "I was going to tell you. This came up and I thought it was best to deal with this situation first." Remus tried to explain, James looking confused back and forth at the two of them.

"Oh so, instead send me to Lily. She explain it to me instead. Good idea!" Sirius started to raise his voice in fury. "You should have told me! I thought I meant more to you than that! I love Lily, like a sister. But this was your thing to tell me."

"I know-"

James interjected as soon as he could, "excuse me? Lily is at Hogwarts." he was shocked, his friends had known where she was and never said anything. This was his wife, and they didn't think to mention where she was. Remus must have known for months yet he never said anything. "What is she doing in Hogwarts?" James was too bad to make eye contact with his friends, he was burning with anger. At his friends, but also at Lily. She didn't tell him that she was back, or even for that matter alive.

Sirius broke eye contact with Remus to look at James. He realised what he said, and what he did. _Shit. I shouldn't have said that._ Sirius thought to himself. The tone in his voice was attempting to be calming, he could see the anger on James' face. "Look I don't think it's a good time for you to go see her now. Not in this state, I'll come with you and see her tomorrow. It's Saturday so she won't have any lessons."

"Don't try to talk down to me. You've known all this time where she was, didn't you? And you just forgot to tell me! What kind of friends are you?!" James screamed. There was a silence, Remus and Sirius hung their heads in shame. "So if she has lessons today she must be a teaching? What subject is she teaching?"

"Potions." Remus replied. The messy haired man stormed off to the fireplace and disappeared in green flames. Leaving two of the four marauders ashamed of their behaviour and respect towards their friend.

James arrived in Dumbledore's office, same as Sirius only twenty minutes before him.

"What a nice surprise. Two of you in one day." Albus commented still looking at 'The Daily Prophet', he knew it was only a matter of time before James would arrive.

"I need to see Lily." James was to the point, he wasn't in the mood for being nice. Albus knew he wasn't mucking about, nodded at let the man go about his business. The young man didn't waste anymore time, he headed of out the door and down the spiral staircase.


	13. Muggle fighting

"So today we are going to learn about different diseases today. But of course in a fun way." Lily started. Since Padfoot had left, she had started a first year Potion lesson; Gryffindor and Hufflepuff. Harry and his two best friends (Hermione and Ron) were in her class, she really wanted to make a good impression on them. But she especially liked Hermione, she enjoyed her lessons and always contributed to the class.

"First everyone must be put into groups of three, where you can explore any disease. Once you have researched your chosen field, you will be asked to present your findings up at the front. And whoever's work is the best will win this." Lily healed up a some vile. "It's common name is liquid luck. And well it does what is says on the bottle, one will be given to each member of the group." the children gasped. She knew it was inappropriate to give it to the children, but there was nothing else, she had given out all her sweets and had none left in her draw. It must wait until tomorrow, until she would have the time to go down to Honeydukes and get some more.

The students arranged themselves into their groups, there was minimal mingling between the houses. The two houses didn't dislike each other, not like the rivalry between Slytherin and Gryffindor, but everyone was always on guard. The war had done that to everyone, including the children now. Lily scanned the room, surveying her surroundings to see what was happening, it upset her. She hoped it had changed since she had been at Hogwarts, but no luck. This was the result of multiple battles in the corridors, Harry had been part of some of them.

One afternoon, not too long ago, "oi, what do we see here?" a blonde first year Slytherin said towards Hermione. As he was being followed by 'his muscle'. His name was Draco Malfoy, he seemed to have a hatred for the young frizzy haired Gryffindor. "Not going to answer to your superior then?" he egged, it seemed like it was his goal to get Harry's group into as many fights as possible.

"Back off Malfoy!" Ron spitted. Draco whipped round to look at the ginger haired boy, scanned the individual in front of him. He smiled at him, not a nice and sweet smile; but a cunning smile that enlightened Ron that Draco was happy that he reacted.

"What do you want Weasley?" Draco calmly asked, "protecting your mudblood girlfriend now, are we?" before anyone could replied Harry's wand was drawn and pointed straight at Draco's noise, his emerald eyes showed no fear.

"I think it's best if you leave now." Harry suggested. Harry wasn't afraid of a fight, but recently he had gotten into many battles with Draco and his friends.

"Who are you anyway? Nobody knows who you are? Raised by muggles weren't you." Draco integrated.

"So?" Harry spitted, everyone had bought his backstory without a question apart from Draco. It wasn't like he didn't believe, but more using it as an excuse to bully him.

"Well how do you know you're actually a wizard. You have never used any spell, you seem to result to muggle fighting when you get provoked. You never knew your parents, what would dad think of your muggle-like behaviour?" it was true, Harry avoided using his wand. He didn't quite trust himself with his wand, all the spells he has used in his own company had always ended up becoming more extreme version of the spell. Harry could never understand why, and he didn't want to hurt anyone with a spell going wrong; so this resulted in him using his fists. But at got Harry was Draco's last comment, 'what would his dad think' did his dad actually ever act like he did. What would his dad think of him if he met him? He didn't want the answer to that question, he was too afraid of it.

"I think it's the first time I have seen your wand. Or did you just steal?" Draco questioned.

"Entomorphis!" Harry shouted, and directed his wand at Draco's heart. Draco instantly started having beetle like reactions. The jet black haired boy had used the 'Insect Jinx' on the other boy causing him to act like a given insect. Hermione's expression was impressed, she knew of the jinx but never saw the features of the spell first hand. And it had surprised her that Harry had done the jinx as well, she hadn't seen him do any magic either honestly, but she knew there must be a reason behind it. Ron was just confused, he didn't know what it was or what was happening either for that matter.

Crabbe and Goyle back off from Draco, they too didn't know what was happening. They weren't the smartest at any count, so they started to scream at the highest their voices would allow as Draco began to crawl around the floor sniffling and licking the floor.

This evidently caused all teachers in the radius of the school to be alerted to the in confrontation. And to Harry's annoyance, the closest teacher was his mother.

"And what's going on here?" Lily asked calmly, Crabbe and Goyle pointed abrupted at Harry, but he didn't make eye contact with his mother.

"Professor, Draco had started the confrontation." Hermione explained.

"As that as it may be, may I see Miss Granger, Mr Weasley, Mr Malfoy and Mr Potter- I'm sorry Mr Smith in my office please." Harry met his mum's eyes with his own for the first time with shock. They both hoped no one had noticed her slip up. Hermione crinkled her eyebrows in confusion but no one else had caught onto the slip up.

All the named children started to make their way to their professor's office, apart from Draco who was still acting like a very convincing beetle. Lily flicked her wand and Draco stood up acting distort from the experience, but Lily wasn't falling for it. "If you don't mind Mr Malfoy." his potion's professor waved her arm in the direction of where the trio was. His face was frowning but knew not to bad mouth the teacher right in front of them, but under his breath his grumbled to himself, "wait until my father hears about this." Lily heard him and laughed to herself, and then mumbled to herself, "spoilt brat." and made their way to the office by walking through the potion classroom.

The teacher settled in her lumpy chair, "Would anyone cared to explain?" three of the students spoke over each other, leaving Harry just sinking his head. He knew he wasn't going to get out of it either way, she was his mother and there was always going to be consequences. "And now one at a time, Miss Granger if you would?"

"Well, Professor. We were just leaving from dinner from the Great Hall. And we ran into Draco who took it upon himself to cause a fight by-" Hermione tried to explain before Ron cut her off.

"He called her a mudblood!" Ron shouted at the teacher.

Lily tried to avoid showing her frustration on her face, she started off quite while, until she began speak. "Why did you think it was appropriate to use that word Mr Malfoy?"

"I didn't." Draco said bluntly, "I didn't use it."

"So are you saying that these three students attacked you, with no cause." Lily questioned. Harry, Hermione and Ron were staying at Draco, as if they were going to kill him. They couldn't believe he was going to admit it.

"Yes."

"You bloody git-" Ron shouted

"There is no need for that language Mr Weasley." Lily agreed, but couldn't say it. "I have to admit Mr Malfoy, I'm not convinced by that story. So until you feel you can tell me the truth, you will have detention every night." Everyone smile apart from Draco, including Harry.

"Wait until my-" Draco started.

"I'm sure your father will love to hear your version of the story. But I'm not interested in the 'Draco is a hero' version of the story." Lily knew it was rude and inappropriate to say that to the young student, but she knew what Hermione was going through. That word had followed her around her whole childhood and through most of her adulthood, it was horrible, disgusting and vile. And if she could make one muggleborn's life just a little easier it would be worth it.

Draco crossed his arms and frowned, "but I like to know who cursed Mr Malfoy."

"It was Smith." Draco splurted as quick as he could. If he was going to go down, he was going to bring one of them down with him. Lily glanced at her son, whose head to sunk again and he wasn't going to lift it to defend himself. He knew he was in wrong, and so did his mother. Draco's cunning smile was plastered on his face.

"Is this true Mr Smith?"

"Yes." he wasn't even going to defend himself.

"But he was only doing it protect Hermione, Professor. He won't do it without a reason." Ron said as quick as he could to get his point across as fast as possible.

"It's true Professor." Hermione added. Lily knew that her son was only doing it to protect his friends.

"Being that as it may. Mr Smith would you wait behind so I can talk to you alone. The rest of you need to get back to your common rooms before you get caught. It's getting quite late." she knew if she took any points away from Slytherin, it won't bother Draco. In his world it was all about him, so taking points wouldn't bother him as much as detention.

There was small glance between the trio, "I'll meet you back at the common room. I won't be too late." he didn't want his friends to wait outside of the door and hear something they shouldn't know.

Harry had been meaning to tell his friends about his true identity, but he didn't know a lot as it was. And he wanted to tell him when he knew. But now wasn't the time.

The other students left the room, leaving both Lily and Harry alone for the first time in a few weeks. They were both extremely busy with work, but this was the first time could talk without looking suspicious to the other students.

"Care to explain?" Lily asked her son.

"What Hermione said was right. And then when he started talking about my dad, I just lost it. So I made him act like an insect."

"What did he say about your father?"

"Just what would he think of me and my behaviour, because I choose muggle fighting rather than wand battles."

"Your father would be proud of you. Did you know? Once he threw a punch when someone tried to hurt me." Lily smiled at the memory, "I was so mad at him when he did it."

"Why don't you tell me more about him?" Harry nudged, leaning on a chair arm behind him.

"Because Harry it's extremely hard for me to do so."

"Why can't I meet him? I could finally get to meet my dad and get to know who he is."

"Harry. Soon. I'm just trying to find the best time to explain to him what I did. What I did, was unforgivable. Nothing I can say or do would make it any better, so I waiting for a time when he is less stressed to talk to him."

"That's means never then." Harry huffed.

"Harry you are too young to understand. I will talk to him when I am ready." Lily told Harry.

"Fine." with that Harry turned to have his back to his mother and walked out of the door. As he started to walk to the door, he thought about what he had said. Once he has one hand on the

Office door, he didn't look back at his mum but said, "I know it's hard to talk to him. And I can't imagine how scared you are. I just really want you to be happy, every time you talk about him your face lights up. But then you all of a sudden, you start to frown. He makes you happy. And that's all I want for you and I; happiness." he didn't wait for his mother to reply, so he opened the door and left his mother to think about her actions.

Lily realised she still had a class going on in the room, when she woke from her daydream. The young students were talking quite loudly now, this didn't bother her she enjoyed the happy conservations she could over hear.

"No Ron, we aren't researching about the cure to stupidity." Hermione stated.

"I hope to get let out early." said a ginger hufflepuff near the front of the classroom.

"Professor Evans, are we able to do it on whatever disease we choose?" asked another Hufflepuff in the group next to Harry.

"Yes, any that you find interesting." Lily answered.

Her mind began to wonder again, and the morning that had already gone down. She thought of Sirius and what she did to him, and to Remus. What she did now, didn't seem to be a dream what so ever, but more of a nightmare for Remus.

The class continued to be happy and animated, until BANG. The normally extremely heavy oak door swung open as if it was as light as a feather, to reveal an extremely angry jet black haired man with hazel eyes staring straight at Lily.

"I DESERVE A FUCKING EXPLANATION! AND I WANT IT NOW, LILY!" 

* * *

Hi, sorry it's been a while. I've been very busy with exams. If you do have any questions about anything do let me know, I'm happy to answer any queries.


	14. James finds out about Harry

"I DESERVE A FUCKING EXPLANATION! AND I WANT IT NOW, LILY!" James shouted at Lily. The classroom was dead silent, no one moved let alone speak. None of the children knew what was going on, including Harry. He didn't know what to expect when he first saw his dad, but he didn't want to see this side of him.

"I'm not leaving until you explain yourself Lily. You're my wife, at least have the respect to tell me where you have been for twelve years?" After James began to calm down Lily turned to her class, who James had not even noticed were in the room.

"This project will be due in and to be presented next lesson. So I'm expected you for the rest of this lesson to complete this work. Class dismissed." all the students quickly picked up their belongings and scuffled out of the door, making minimal sound as possible. Harry did the same but at a slower pace to see if he could talk to his dad. His mother made eye contact with him, and said telepathically "I'm going to talk to him now. Just let me talk to him first." Harry understood what his mother meant, he increased his speed to leave at the same time as his friends and walked down the corridor towards the Gryffindor common room.

"What the bloody hell was that?" Ron asked his friends.

"I knew there was something familiar about her." Hermione remembered. "And that man is James Potter. You know, the head of the Auror Department at the Ministry of magic."

"Oh yeah. My dad has mentioned him a couple of times, he said he is a nice guy but normally keeps to himself now." Ron commented, Harry didn't say anything and only listened. His friends seemed to know more about his dad than he did.

"So about 12 years ago, him and his wife were at the top of their game, she was one of the best healers in the country. But being a muggleborn, she was thought to been attack at her house. They assumed that she was taken, muggleborns had been disappearing a lot over those couple of months, her husband never commented on his situation with the paper. But from what I could tell, and Mr Potter's use of her name Lily. His wife's name was Lily Potter, and he asked where she has been for twelve years. That can only mean they are the same person."

"Bloody hell." Ron added. Harry was shocked he really didn't know what happened to his mother when she went to America. Everything he knew about his mother shifted slightly, it all was seen through a slightly different eye. He knew he had to tell his friends now, Harry thought that this was the best time to do it.

"There's something I need to tell you." Harry started.

* * *

Meanwhile, back in the potion's classroom, Lily had walked up the door to put a silence charm on it. She had notice some students lingering by the door, she knew this fight was going to be the worst one of her life and she knew it was going to be loud.

"Where have you been? Why did you never tell me? What happened to you all that time ago?" James blurted at Lily, he had some many questions but so little answers. He loved that he could be in the same room as her, but hated the fact that he hated her some much.

"I've been in America. And I didn't tell you because I think I was doing it for your safety."

"You think?" James asked.

"I didn't know if the people would go after you, if they knew I was still alive." Lily stated, she was trying to keep a calm voice but she was struggling.

"Who attacked you?"

"I don't know who they were. When it came to the first attack, but I know who it was for the second."

"There were two attacks?" James stuttered, he couldn't imagine someone attacking Lily once let alone twice. "Who attacked you?"

"It doesn't matter, there's nothing you can do."

"Excuse me? I've been trying to do something for years. I've almost lost my job multiple times to you. Don't go around and say that there's nothing I can and will do."

"No that's not what I mean! I mean You-Know-Who attacked me. I mean the second time."

"What happened?"

"I don't want to talk about it. I can't talk about it."

"Lily, I've been believing for the last twelve years you were abducted. You have no need what my mind did to make up the blanks in that story. I deserve to know why you moved on. Why you didn't wait for me as I did for you?"

"Because you never came for me! I waited for you, that night at the water fountain, I waited for you to come and save me but you never came. That was the moment I needed you the most and you never came!"

"I never knew about that! But that doesn't give you the excuse to fuck someone else while being married and have their child. I loved you more than heaven and earth, enough to wait for you forever, but you couldn't keep it in your pants."

"What are you going on about? I never slept with anyone else. Only you." Lily was confused by what James was saying.

"Now I know you're lying. You had a son, you took him to sweet shop in Diagon Alley once and I saw you with him. What's the adulteress love child name then?!"

"Stop being so rude, his name is Harry. He's ten times the man you will ever be, especially like this!"

"And you couldn't even be bothered to use a different name. That's hilarious, you decided to name your's and some random bastard's child after the only baby name we ever picked out for our baby!"

"There isn't anyone else, Harry's your son!" Lily screamed, "that's why I choose the baby name I did." there was a blank expression stunned on James' face, he never thought about your baby being his baby. But he thought about a bit longer, _she has taken twelve years away from me with my child. My Harry, my son, he has grown up without a father because she was only thinking what was best for her. Not what was best for him or Harry._

"You took twelve years away from me with my son. How can I look at you? How could you do that to me? Did you ever love me?" Lily hope was shattered, she thought that what she said might cause him to give her a chance. However, it did the opposite. This is what she feared, James rejecting her, the only person whose opinion she really cared about had just looked at her like she was dirt. Like she was the most disgusting troll on the inside and out.

"I love you, I love you so much. I know what I did was unimaginable, but we can work through this, please I'm begging you."

"You lost the opportunity to work through this twelve years ago, when you never told me you were safe. That's all I would have needed, a letter saying you were alive and you had to stay away until things calmed down. But you didn't even respected me enough to do that." tears rolled down Lily's face like a waterfall, there was no way of stopping the pain Lily now felt. She had let him down; James was never going to be with her again.

"I don't want to see you ever again." James added. He avoided her gaze, her emerald eyes were magical and had ways of changing James' mind; but not today.

Lily knew there was nothing more to be said, he didn't want her anymore. She knew that she had lost him, it was all her fault and she couldn't fixed it. Lily's heart broke along with her speech, "I'll- ju- I'll just be going then." with every step Lily took to the door, another piece of her heart could be found falling with each of her tears. They fell like bullets, she couldn't stop herself anymore, and even though they were officially not together now she still didn't want him to see her in the state that she was. She left the classroom and ran through the corridors to the main entrance, out through the huge double doors to the edge of the Forbidden Forest.

Her body was going into overdrive, she didn't know what to think or what to do, every emotion possible was coursing through her veins. Her heart rate sky rocketed, this led her stomach to reject its content onto the tree trunk in front of her, this carried on for several minutes with every now and again she had to stop for oxygen until only water was being deposited from her body.

Her pulse decreased to a steady beat, her breath was calming slightly. The ginger haired women sat down next to the tree, avoiding to sit down in any vomit. _There's nothing more I can do, I was so stupid. I should have never let him go through what he did, he should have known from the started. He was never there for the pregnancy stuff with Harry, he will never be able to experience what it was like to feel his baby boy kicking in his mother's stomach. Or he might, but with someone else._

Lily started crying again. She didn't know what else to do, what else could she do?

* * *

On the other side of the castle, her other half was taking it just as bad as she had. Throughout their fight, James didn't cry, he made sure of that, but now that Lily had gone he didn't know what to do either. He was so angry, he was angrier than he had ever been at a Death Eater or Voldemort, he hated that he was so angry; which made the rage ten times worse. He turned to the closest wall and smashed it over and over again with his fist. The pain he felt distracted him from his feelings so he kept hitting the wall, again, again and again. Blood poured out of his knuckles, by the sixth hit his hand was covered in a thick red paste of blood. He only stopped punching when he lost all his energy and collapsed against the wall in front of him. As he crawled his broken hand he felt all the pain hit him again like a hammer to the chest, he didn't know what to think or what to do. Lily had always been such a big part of his life, even when she wasn't there he thought about her all the time.

It was true James had almost lost his job to Lily on several occasions:

One of them was- a month after Lily had gone, James spared no resource to find her. Everyone in the country (muggle and wizard) was notified by the paper or one way or another. He didn't know what to do without her, so one day he turned to alcohol. The more he drank, the more his problems went away. It came to the point where James was only sober when he was asleep. In his friend's eyes, they didn't know if he would ever be able to come out of this stated ever again, but to James what made it the worst part is that he never knew if she was alive or dead. His mind would often play out horrible sequences of what happened to her, it drove him to insanity at some points.

However, through all of that only one man was able to bring him out of the depths of hell to look him straight in the eye; Frank Longbottom. He saved James from bathing his liver in firewhiskey. If it wasn't for Frank, he would have been caught by his boss and fired. But Frank was able to comfort him and give James hope that she was still out there alive, like an angel having all knowing truth.

James continued to think to himself about what he said to Lily, _did it have to end the way it did? She is the love of my life. What about Harry? Where does Harry come into all of this? Will I ever get to meet my son? I've lost so many years with him, how can I ever go back? I've lost so many years with him._ He thought about his last sentence a little longer, _I've lost so many years with him…. So what the fuck am I doing here? I should be spending every moment I have with him. I've already lost enough time, why am I wasting anymore? I need to find him, I need to talk to him. He's my son, he's our son._

James got up from off the floor and headed for the door, he had to find Harry. But what he didn't know is that his son was trying to find him, but for a very different reason….


	15. Harry meets James for real

"There's something I need to tell you." Harry stated to his friends as they walked back to the common room.

"What is it Harry?" Hermione asked very concerned, she didn't know what he meant by this. She was hoping he would add to the conversation, but with the sadness in his voice; it sounded serious. They entered through the portrait, they all found a seat around the cold fireplace and sat down.

"Well it's actually a very long story. First I should probably tell you that, what I told you about my parents was a lie. I'm sorry I lie, but at the time, my mum didn't think it was the best thing to trust anyone."

"So your parents are still alive?" Ron questioned, he was quite intrigued by Harry's story. He always thought Harry to be a quite ordinary guy, but he was turning about to be quite interesting.

"Yes, actually today was the first day I had ever seen my dad."

"Your Lily and James' son." Hermione added, she gasped, she was still shocked even though she said it, Harry hung his head and nervously shuffled his hands together.

"I grew up with my mum in America, not knowing really anything about her life before that. She never talked about it, until we came back this summer. My mum wanted to be back for the funeral of Alice, Frank and Neville Longbottom, she talked about her as if they were close. And then I got to meet my Godfather's: Remus and Sirius-"

"Wait, not professor Lupin?" Ron wondered, Harry nodded. "That's so cool."

"But since my mum has been back, she hasn't spoken to my dad, she kept telling me that she was going to do it. But she didn't, I'm assuming they're talking right now."

"More like shouting." Ron tried to joke,

"Ron!" Hermione shouted. "they are having an argument, it might not be so smooth. But that's not what he needs to hear right now."

"I just hope everything is okay. They love each other, I just want to have a really family, you know with Christmas and barbecues."

"So you have never celebrated Christmas?" Ron asked.

"Not really, mum would always have to work. To pay for the bills you know, but when she came back we enjoyed Christmas together."

"Do you know why you stayed in England? I mean your mum was doing this to protect you, so won't she go back to America with you."

"I don't know really. I remember getting post from an owl, we never use to get them for years. But it said something that the next couple of days we were on our way to England, to Hogwarts really." Harry tried to look happy about this, but couldn't. He wanted to be happy about moving, however the letter distracted him from his happiness, he kept wondering what was so important in that letter to make them move.

"I think I should go and check on my parents." the emerald eyed boy suggested.

"Harry you don't want to go there and have them fighting." Hermione added, Ron thought of a brilliant idea that would put the girl next to him to shame,

"We could use the map to see if they are still there."

"That's brilliant, but how will we know if they have finished fighting?" Harry asked.

"We can work it out when we see what is going on." Ron tried to explain.

Harry pulled out the map from his back trouser pocket, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."

The ink spread revealing a dot named 'Lily Potter' moving quickly out of the main entrance and down to the Forbidden forest. The Hermione and Ron just stared at Harry, who didn't move. No one knew what was going on, but they knew it wasn't good. The fact that she wasn't with James suggested they weren't fighting, but nor were they making up. Hermione tried to sound positive, "she's still here though, that must count for something.", she thought it would help her friend to say this but only made it worse.

"I need to go and make sure she is alright." Harry explained, she was alone and probably scared, he didn't want her to be on your own going through whatever she was going through.

"Are you sure that's the best thing Harry?" Ron asked, he wasn't trying to be rude only thinking about his friend. "She might want some time to herself."

"I don't want her to be alone, she has gone through all of this on her own. And I won't let her do it anymore." Harry said quickly, he understood where his ginger friend was coming from, but he hated he knew so little about his mother before she moved to America. Harry felt like he had pressured his mother to do something before she was ready, she had gone through so much for him and ended up just asking for more.

He glanced back down at the map to see another dot appear close to Lily, the label read 'Fenrir Greyback'. Harry had never heard of this name before, he showed the map to Ron and Hermione. Ron's eyes widen, "Harry, his on the wanted posters. He his a follower of You-Know-Who!" without thinking Harry turned around and sprinted out of the common room and towards the main entrance. He moved as fast as he could, swinging the map in his hand as he ran. He didn't know what he could do, he was only a small boy, but he had to do something. He ran through corridors at speeds only broomsticks could go. He made it to the main entrance and screamed "MUM!" he looked at the edge of the forest to see where she was. But she was gone. As he picked up the map to check again his friends arrived, "where is she?" Hermione mumbled, the map showed no dot for Fenrir Greyback or Lily Potter.

"She's gone." Harry muttered, his eyes filled with water. He had let her down, the only time she needed him and he wasn't there for her. Tears ran down his fast, he couldn't stop the flow of water.

"There must be something we can do." Hermione stated, she wanted to stay positive and help her friend however he was in the wrong state of mind.

"I let her down." whimpered the emerald eyed boy,

"We could go to Dumbledore, he might know what to do." Ron suggested, he too wanted to stay positive.

"WHAT CAN HE DO?! SHE'S GONE, IT'S NOT LIKE HE KNOWS HOW TO FIND THESE TYPES OF PEOPLE!" Harry shouted, he was mad at himself and all he wanted to do was scream.

"Do we know anyone who would know how to take down these type of people then?" Hermione asked calmly, she knew he was upset but wanted to engage his emotions on finding her rather than beat himself up.

"What about your dad Harry? He might know what to do in this situation." Ron added, he thought it was a long shot to suggest his father after what just went down, but he was the best wizard for the job.

"That's not a bad idea…" Harry whispered. Once wiping away his tears he checked the map again, he saw that his dad was just leaving the Potion's classroom and heading towards them. As he set off again at a run it took no time at all to meet his dad.

He was a spitting image of him, minus the wrinkles and slowly forming grey hairs. They had exactly the same messy jet black hair that fell perfectly into both of their eyes, both father and son wore very similar circle spectacles on the bridge of their noses. Meanwhile, there was one major feature that was different behind the glasses, their eyes. James' were hazel flaked with golden sizzlers embedded into them, they were kind but also strong as if they had seen a lot of tragedies. Harry's, on the other hand, reflected his mother; the emerald green colour were mesmerizingly powerful. However, they also reflected his mother's personality a kind, loving and passionate person.

This concluded, in James' mind, that this was his and Lily's son.

"I'm James, I'm your dad." James started smiling uncontrolable, he didn't know what else to say, there was an overwhelming feeling of love for a boy he had just met. It made him nervous, as he tried to make a good first impression.

"Mum's been taken." Harry said quickly, he wanted to have a proper introduction with his father but now wasn't the time. He needed to find his mother.

His smile faded almost suddenly, "what are you going on about? I was just with her?" he didn't want to believe it, he couldn't go through it all again; not again.

"She was by the edge of the forest and then someone else appear and she was gone." Harry tried to explain, he pointed to the piece of parchment as he spoke, "I know this because of this-"

"You have the map?" James question, he was impressed that he had it but wondered who he got it from.

"Remus, my mum's friend, he gave it to me. What happened to your hand?" his son answered, James was still cradling his right hand in his left. He tried to changed the subject off of his hand and back onto Lily.

"Which edge of the forest did you see her?"

"Not too far from the whomping willow." James ran in the direction Harry had instructed. There was no time to waste, there could be a way she was still there. James minded kept saying though, _the map never lies, the map never lies._ He didn't want to realise the truth until he had to.

Once arriving on the scene, James scanned it for any evidence for Lily. All he could find was: a puddle of vomit, Lily's wand and a shoe.

"Who took her? Did you see a name Harry? There should have been one on top of the dot." James interrogated Harry as he got closer to him to get out all the information he could, for a second he forgot it was his son. He back up slowly and lowered his head to look at the forest floor. "I'm sorry, it's just hard. You know to go through it all over again. The night she disappeared, I came back home to a crime scene, I didn't know where she was, there was five Death Eaters unconscious on the floor and her blood found on the sofa. I don't want to lose her again, both of you ever again."

His son put a comforting hand on his shoulder, "I know, I can see that. I can see you still love mum, and she still loves you. We're not going anywhere. We just got here."

"You're just like your mother, she was the only one who could calm me down."

"That's good, we'll get her back. The name of the person was Fenrir Greyback, he was-"

"I know who he is, quick, we need to go and get Remus. He knows more about him than I do."

* * *

Hey guys, do let me know what you think. I'm trying to get the chapters out as often as I can so bare with me. But I hope you enjoyed it.


	16. Malfoy Manor

The street was quiet, it had hit midday on the late September's day, the wind was cold and minor, it whispered through the trees slowly whisking them side to side. It was a private road meant for a very rich and important wizarding family. The manor was in the middle of the forest with a long narrow road leading off to a main muggle road. As the wind whisked through the branches of the trees, a slight hint of rotten apples could be smelt from the huge tree at the side of the house. However, this wasn't a family home filled with laughter and fun but it was the secret headquarters for the stronger growing Lord Voldemort, and the name of the house was Malfoy Manor.

Greyback dragged the unconscious witch to the gates of the Manor, he had just apparated close to the house. However, there were guards in place, similar to Hogwarts, to stop anyone from apparating and disapparating in the compound.

"Where do I put her?" the werewolf spitted to the owner of the house, Lucius Malfoy.

"Take her through the side gate, it will be easier to get her into the dungeon." the werewolf nodded and went back round the tall vegetation fence to the side gate. Greyback wasn't known to be the most knowledgeable wizard, but he was always trusted when he came to missions. He never really liked other people, he never really got on with them. People hated him, so he hated people. Mostly because of something he couldn't even control, his disease.

He had to going through part of the forest to get to his destination. As he pushed on the side gate it open slightly, it was never locked. It lead straight out from forest and no one ever would come or go through this entrance. He lifted the lifeless body onto his shoulder and climbed down the stairs, opened the door to the dungeon and placed her on the floor. He left locking the door behind him.

Lily was alone, unconscious and hand a gash open on her forehead from where her attacker had knocked her out, as well as minus a shoe.

* * *

A few days before this point in the Malfoy Manor:

"Master." Peter whimpered, he avoided eye contact with his superior. His master was sprawled across a throne like arm chair. Nothing seemed to bother him, he was at the height of his power and had nothing to fear.

"What is it Wormtail?" he drooled to his inferior,

"Umm, it's- it's about the Potters."

"What about him? He is of little concern, he has driven himself to insanity without his mudblood wife." he laughed, Voldemort resembled an older Tom Riddle, his skin was pale, cold and flaky. But not a lot snake like features, he would glide his head from side to side like a snake moving but nothing ever more than that.

"About that, my Lord. She's still alive." Voldemort arose from his throne overshadowing his servant.

"I kill that ginger little mudblood twelve years ago! Why are you mentioning it now?" the anger spilled from his mouth. He himself knew that there was a possibility she was still alive. When he woke from his duel with the female Potter, she wasn't there. To be honest, there was any evidence to prove his hadn't blown her into a million pieces, but nor was there any to suggest she had escaped from the Dark Lord. Tom couldn't have his reputation broken on a possibility, so he did what he thought would be the most beneficial for him. Up until this point he had no reason to believe she was alive, he couldn't have people thinking he wasn't strong enough to defeat a simple mudblood.

"She was spotted at Diagon Alley by James, my Lord, he told me and Black. I don't want you to believe I'm telling you this to anger you, my Lord." the small man whimpered,

"You are lying to your Master? How dare you!?" the pale man pulled out his wand from his robe and pointed it at Wormtail's heart. The rat like man startled, covered his head with his hands, not noticing his servants fear he screamed, "Avada Kedavra!" the corpse fell to be a lump on the ground, lifeless and still Peter stared into space.

"Is everything okay my Lord?" asked Lucius Malfoy, opening the door. He hadn't heard the conversation only the screaming of the killing curse.

"Get me Greyback." Voldemort commanded.

* * *

Lily awoke with a searing pain on her head. "Fuck." she dabbed her forehead, the gash continue to gush out thick red liquid. "Fucking hell, what happened?" she asked herself, realising there was no one else there.

The dungeon was dark, cold and unwelcoming. She scanned the large area to find some sort of escape route, all she could see was two doors. One which led up into the house itself and another that led to the garden. In the dungeon itself, there was a multiple pillars to hold up the ceiling, a chair and one light source. It was obvious that this had been the room for this exact purpose, kidnapping. As well as the foul stench of rotten fish, the room had never been cleaned, from floor to ceiling behind the chair was dried blood. _This cannot be good. But where am I though? It must belong to someone._ Lily thought to herself, she knew that this must be an expensive house considering the size of the dungeon as well as it was definitely belonged to a wizarding family for one of the doors seemed to have a flickering light appear then disappear around it to stop her from using magic on it. Not that she had her wand on her anyway.

Lily was still extremely emotional, her fight with James had left her feeling vulnerable and now she was in a dungeon because she let her guard down. She thought to herself, _at least James and Harry are safe. As long as they are both safe, I don't care how long I'm here for. Harry needs to be protected, no one knows who he is- The Chosen One. And as long as everyone believes it's Neville and not Harry, the safer he will be. I will make sure no one finds out if it is the death of me._ She gulped harshly, she didn't know why she was there, was it because of connection to James? And him being so high up in the Ministry of Magic? Or was it the fact she was a muggleborn?

Footsteps could be heard at the top of the stairs from the house, a someone withdrew his wand just, incase his prisoner tried to attack them. Lily hid behind the closest pillar. "Mudblood, you better be somewhere where I can see you. If not, you will have another cut like the one Greyback gave you." she didn't recognise the voice but it was a male voice, it sounded spirited and crazy as if he was a untamed dragon. But this didn't stop Lily from moving, she stayed behind the pillar. "I'm warning you mudblood." she hated the name, but she didn't let her hatred get the better of her.

The man unlocked the door and walking slowly into the dimly lit room. He was getting closer to her, with every step that echoed Lily wanted to pounce, but when she did it was timed perfectly. He had no time to respond as she right hooked him in the face and ran through the open door.

"Locomotor Mortis!" the attacker shouted as he pointed his wand in the direction of Lily. Her legs glued together immediately causing her to face plant the floor. This lead to her hitting her head so badly that she got a nosebleed and was knocked out once again.

No time at all passed before her eyes opened and she was attached to the disgusting chair.

"I told you that you would regret it." said her attacker, she saw he had straw blond hair and was pale and freckly. He had a unpleasant smile plastered across his face, he raised his wand, "Crucio." she tried not to screamed, but couldn't hold it in. Every cell in her body felt as if she was being heated to a thousand degrees, once he released the spell her head dropped as she gasped for breath. "Now that one was just for fun." he laughed, his body began to crouch low enough to look at the ginger women in the eye. "I will be getting to know you very well, all your secrets I will find out- this is before I kill you. So I think that it's only polite of me to introduce himself as your person torturer and killer, my name is Barty Crouch Junior. And I will be the last person you see before you die-"

"You killed Frank and Alice Longbottom!" Lily remembered, Remus had told her a bit about how James was trying to find and take down the man right in front of her.

"Yes I did. They never needed to die, only the boy, but the girl kept pleading me not to kill her son and won't move. To be honest, it was a shame. They were both purebloods, but still traitors none the these." Lily tried to jump at him out of the chair but couldn't see was withstrained by magic. "Now this is where we are going to have our second disagreement. You are my prisoner, you will do what I say, when I say it. If you don't I will just keep making your life very difficult. And there is no need for that, why make your last few days on earth painful?"

"So what do you want from me then?" Lily voiced. She had no plan on giving in, but she was now curious more than ever.

"You're meant to be dead. You're not. Why is that? How could you, a stupid mudblood defy the greatest Dark Lord and still live?" Lily clicked that Voldemort found out she was alive and was coming after answers. She knew the really reason, how somehow Harry had repelled the curse from within her.

"I don't know, maybe he just missed, doesn't seem like a good shot anyway." Lily said snarcolly. She wasn't going to tell him the reason ever, and she was going to be a bitch about it. Her logic was that if she was a bitch, he would get annoyed and kill her before she could give up her son's secret. He was going to do anything to get the answers, and she was going to do anything to stop him from finding out about Harry and hurting him. _If this was going to lead to her death,_ _so be it. I will have done my job as a mother, protected my son until the very end._

"Crucio!" Barty spitted, she screamed again louder and for even longer this time. Her insides bubbling to a point of near explosion. "Don't you dare, even suggest you are best than him in anyway. You're not, you don't have any magical parents. Just a disgusting filthy mudblood!"

"Good to know. It wasn't like you hadn't said that at any point up to now."

"I can, and will make you beg for death. And I will only grant that wish until you have told me what I want to hear."

"You're dad loves you."

"Excuse me?"

"That's the thing you want to hear. You're dad loves you, I know who you are, you're dad is very high up in the Ministry. He never told you that he loved you and now you're doing this to get back at him. Your daddy issues has lead you down this path. That's the only reason why you are doing this, not because you believe the snake loving idiot is right!"

"CRUCIO!" he shouted, and the women's high pitch scream deafened herself temporarily.

* * *

I hope you enjoyed it. Next one will be up as soon as possible.


	17. Padfoot Vs Prongs

"Why didn't you tell me?" Sirius questioned Remus, "do I mean that little to you that I have to find out from someone else instead of my boyfriend? Or does the past twelve and half years mean nothing?" Sirius was enraged, his hands were swinging about trying to help him explain and emphasise his points, but only making him look like he was trying to fly.

Remus tried not to laugh, he was taking this seriously but his other half did remind him of a baby dragon. He moved round the small coffee table to be standing directly in front of Sirius.

"Of course it does. I was going to talk to you as soon as I had the opportunity, I was always going to tell you. It's not just my decision any more, this would affect all of the Marauders they all need to have a say in the matter."

"So I'm not more important than James and Peter, good to know I'm not going to be told first then, is that what you are saying?" Sirius asked,

"That's not what I meant. I was going to tell you when we were able to be alone."

"How long were you going to wait until you told me?" Black interrogated.

"Sirius, I was going to tell at the first opportunity."

"Okay, fine. What are you going to do?"

"I have no idea." Remus sat down on the arm chair behind him and Sirius kneeled in front of him. "It's a dream in its own right, from the when I was five I always wanted this to happen. But now, it's more than just a disease, it's a way of life. And I don't know if you could look at me in the same way if I did become cured."

"Are you kidding? I want to be with you either way, of course I want you to free from this, it's caused so much pain in so many different ways. I just want to be able to go through rest of your life without having to worry about not getting a job or being spit on in the streets." Sirius hugged Remus, both of them cried. To Remus nothing could be more soothing than a padfoot hug. "It's your decision, but don't do what I want you to do, do what you want to do."

"Thanks Padfoot. I don't know what I would do without you."

"Well for one thing you wouldn't have such an interesting and fabulous life." they both giggled.

"I do have to admit, when you're angry you do resemble a baby dragon, you know with your hands."

"Alright. No need to start picking on me." Sirius laughed.

"I need a drink." Remus stated.

"No need to tell me twice." he gave him the one left on the coffee table from when Remus had arrived several hours ago. "And I'll go get some tea and biscuits."

"Really? Tea, biscuits and alcohol, is that a good combination?" Remus wondered,

"Only one of the best British combinations in the world." Sirius proclaimed proudly, with his arm across his chest looking as if he would start singing the British national anthem. And he did as he left to go into the kitchen.

Remus enjoyed his few seconds a silence, when Sirius was in the other room, and he was able to sit back in his chair and close his eye. He didn't know what he wanted to do, but right now he didn't want to decide. Suddenly, the fireplace to his right lit up in green flames relieving the own of the house as him and his son ran into the lounge.

"Remus!" James screamed follow by Harry. "I need your help!" Harry looked around the room, he had seen nothing like it, it was the biggest house he had ever been in.

"What is it James?" said the professor arising from his seat.

"Lily's been taken. She was taken by Greyback into the forbidden forest, and now she's missing." James blurted out, he didn't want to waste anytime. "Has he spoken to you at any point?"

Remus didn't want to admit it, but Fenrir had been in contact with him- short enough time had passed to still be useful information. "He made contact with me. He wanted to know if I wanted to join You-Know-Who, of course I said no. But he told me if I ever changed my mind to go to Malfoy Manor and ask for him. He could still be there, but this was a couple of months ago I have no idea where he is now. Is Lily okay?"

"I have no idea." James stuttered, his voice cracked. His friend could see that the news was rotting his insides, he was trying to stay strong in front of Harry; but Harry also could see what it was doing to him. "We need to go and get her back now."

"Calm down James. Think about it, if she is being kept there it must be guarded extremely tightly. It's not exactly as if you could just walk in there. We will get an emergency order meeting tonight and we can decide then what we do."

James grabbed Remus by his collar and push back down into his seat."You don't understand. Every minute they have her, the closer she is to death. I'm not losing her, not again."

"What the fuck is going on?" Sirius shouted dropping the tray and all the objects it was holding onto the floor, as he ran to his boyfriend's aid. "James get your hands off him now!" James had lost it, he was so angry, Sirius could see this he needed to make it stop. So he did the only thing that he knew would stop him back when they were younger, the tall dark haired man magnificently transformed into a gigantic black dog with yellow piercing eyes.

He growled at James, so James transformed as well into a powerful stag. Both staring each other down, Padfoot directing Prongs out of lounge, through the kitchen to the back garden. Prongs knew what Padfoot was doing, he didn't let down his guard as he backed up out the kitchen and onto softer ground. Prongs attacked Padfoot first and they were at each other's throats,

"Holy shit!" Harry screamed once the two animagi left the room.

"There's no need for that type of language Harry." Remus coughed, he tried to sit up slowly. "Your father needs to let off a bit of steam now and again, so him and Sirius take out the anger on each other. I don't agree with it, but they both still do it."

"They're both animagi?"

"Yes, and once James calms down. We will be able to talk to him, as a human again." Remus explained,

"So has this planned before then?" Harry asked,

"Once, the day your mother disappeared." his professor replied slowly, it was true that was the only other time they had to take these extreme actions. Back then, the fight lasted hours, however this one lasted all of ten minutes.

Both Prongs and Padfoot stood dead still, Padfoot staring at Prongs and Prongs was staring at his shaking legs in front of him. _What am I doing? I need to stay calm, I need to stay strong for Lily and for Harry now. Get your head out of your arse, JAMES FUCKING POTTER._ The transformation from stag to human was slow, the fur faded into lighter hair and a lot less of it. His body was positioned on all fours from when he was Prongs still staring at the ground in front of him.

"Are you going to be okay?" a quickly transformed Sirius asked, as he threw a blanket over his naked friend. "Get some clothes on quick. We have things to do. Or do I have to beat you again?"

"I can't lose her Padfoot. Not again." James mumbled, Sirius could feel the fear is his voice. He helped his friend to his feet and looked him straight in the eye.

"That is never going to happen. We are not going to let it happen." he reassured his friend. "Don't forget you have a son now. You have to stay strong for him, no matter what happens."

Realising this, James gulped, he didn't want to think of anything bad happening to his wife. But also he gulped down his feeling, until further notice he wasn't going to break down over anything until both his son and wife were safe. He was halfway there, with one being in the house; but nothing was ever going to happen to him. They both chucked on spare clothes that were lying around in the kitchen and continued through into the lounge.

"I'm sorry Remus. I didn't mean to, I just-" James apologized.

"I know. I can only image what you are going through, but we have to do this the smart way if we are going to get everyone back alive. We need to go and see Dumbledore now."

Next to no time was wasted, all of them took their turn in the fireplace and proclaimed the same destination "Hogwarts." Remus went first followed by Sirius. It left Harry and James alone in the house, the young boy was still taking in his surroundings. He wasn't use to this, it was all so big.

"Are you okay Harry?" the older man asked his son,

"Yeah, it's just a lot to take in, I never had much growing up. It's amazing here." Harry claimed,

"What do you mean? Did your mother never tell you about your true home?" Harry stopped looking round at the ceiling, to look his father.

"Not really. It seemed hard to talk about for her, mum avoided talking about anything before our life in America. I think it made it easy for her to stay away, to mum it was a destinate memory, a dream or maybe a nightmare, I don't know, but the less you talk about a place the less you want it."

"Yeah, only your mother knows what she has gone through. And from what I can tell, she has gone through a lot of things for you and she will ever stop. Your mother is strong willed like that." James smiled, she had always been so strong minded, it was one of the reasons why he loved her so much. "Come on, we need to get her home."

They stepped in the marble fireplace together, with a few words they had vanished.

* * *

A few hours later:

"I'm sorry, but I'm not running into battle on a word from a eleven year old boy who I have never met. No offence kid, but I don't know who you are, and I've never met you before." Benjy Fenwick shouted across the office.

"He's my son! Mine and Lily's!" James growled,

"That's not the only reason," Dumbledore suggested he nodded his head in the direction of Harry as if to urge him to speak.

"I don't even know if it's true professor. For all I know, my mum could have said that because she was going through a stress-"

"She was telling the truth." Dumbledore corrected him,

"When then, if we are going off my mum said, this is quite ridiculous, but she believes I'm this Chosen One."

No one spoke. Everyone just glanced at each other, apart from James who just stood there dead still staring at Harry.

"No that was Frank and Alice's child, Neville!" shouted another member, Harry didn't know the name of.

"Actually." Dumbledore started as he got out his desk chair. "Yes, Neville did fit the prophecy but so does Harry. You see when he was younger, I believe he was attack by Voldemort himself, which lead to those few months of silence from his Death Eaters. No one knew why, but I believe Harry had something to do with that."

"Lily did mention that he did attack her. She never said anything else about it. Are you sure Albus?" the headmaster slowly nodded.

"Right, if so Harry will have to be guarded until further noticed. Nothing is going to happen to him, I'll talk to the Ministry and we can have Aurors on him with the hour."

"No you won't." Remus interjected. "If you tell the Ministry, people will find out. Then You-Know-Who will find out, no one knew up until now Harry was the Chosen One. Don't you think Lily wanted it to be that way? She brought him here, Hogwarts, to protect him and she never told a soul, apart from Dumbledore. But weirdly Dumbledore always finds out everything." the older man nodded smiling in the background.

"The best plan is to act natural, when it comes to Harry. But I think we should strike now on the Malfoy Manor, you know they won't be expecting it." Sirius egged. "It's evening now, the night will be over cover."

"We need to wait. We need a plan first." Remus added.

"Dumbledore what do you think?" James asked,

"She loves you all, think what she would do in this situation." James thought to himself, _what would Lily do in this situation? She would do anything to protect us, any of us. If we were in type of danger, she would use herself as a shield to protect the rest of us from the blast._

"We need to go and get her. Now."

* * *

Hi, I know I've done two chapters today, but it's getting quite close to the end so I'm trying to get them out quick.


	18. The Escape

"Crucio!" Lily had lost count how many times the man had shouted this word at her, she was in so much pain but she had no more energy left to scream. "Why were you able to escape from my Lord?" it had been the hundredth time he had asked the same question. Each time she would give a slightly different answer, that always pissed him off.

"He's shit at hide and seek." she mumbled, she didn't know how much longer she was going to last, her mouth could barely move. She couldn't give in though, not for herself.

Barty looked at her glumly, "it's obvious you're not going to say anything when I use this spell, I think we shake it up." he started at he walked over to a small box, Lily hadn't noticed it before and wasn't happy to see anything that was going spice up her torture. "I've been doing research on the most effective way to getting what I want." he opened the box, "now wizards don't like to do this, but I thought it would be fun considering how boring it's been recently torturing you." he held up a small dagger, it looked new. The handle was black and unusually shaped, the knife on the weapon itself was extremely sharp as if there was nothing it couldn't cut throw.

Lily flinched at the sight of the game changing equipment.

"Oh good, you know what's going to happen then. You know I've never had to use this on anyone else before, they all give up their secrets in the first few hours, but you mudblood have seemed to lasted eight hours now. Some would say it's amazing, I say it's because you have to hide something very important that you have a reason to protect." the attacker glanced between the knife and his prisoner while adding a smile.

"You know it is pretty important." Barty knelt low next to his victim, she was whispering now as she had very little energy to even speak,

"Care to tell me what it is?" he smiled.

"I don't think your dad does love you!" she spitted, the smile disappeared from his face and was replaced with a hatred for the person in front of him. He didn't waste any time for her to have a grin on her face, before he stabbed the dagger into her thigh. With all his force, he pushed the knife further and further into her tissue until only the handle could be seen.

The pain was horrible, a hole had been ripped through her skin, and there was nothing she could do. Her hands were still attached to the arms of the chair with the magical restraints, this still didn't stop her whole body from tensing as the burn sensation spreading from her right leg. The women could be heard from all corners of the compound with her scream, her voice was so high it caused Barty to take his hands off the dagger to cover his ears.

The young mother saw her opportunity and took it. She jumped forward in her chair causing it to topple over on her torturer, Barty was temporarily confused which caused the restraints to disappear from around Lily's hands. This gave her what she did, an opportunity to knock him out, and she used all her energy to hit him in the face. She felt her knuckles break, "SHIT!" Lily said as held onto her hand.

Barty was out cold. Lily didn't know how long she had, but she wasn't going to sit around for anything. The victim picked up the man's wand and limped to the door which led to the garden.

"Alohomora." she pointed the long magical stick at the keyhole, the door opened and she moved as quick as she could out of the garden and into the forest.

It wasn't long until Death Eaters found out what had just happened, and were shooting curses at her while they ran after her through the forest. There was no shortness of explosions and loud sounds, or anything really to get their prisoner to fall over.

* * *

Ten minutes before on the same side of the Manor:

"I think we should have brought Harry with us, he really wanted to come." Sirius said, as he tried to make himself more comfortable.

"Of course he wasn't going to come. We didn't know what is going to happen, he's my son and I need to keep him safe and away from all of this." James protested. He didn't want his son anywhere near this, it wasn't going to be a pretty fight and he didn't want to risk his son in any of this; no matter how much he begged.

"But he really wants to help and be part of the fight." Sirius added. "Plus, I thought it was quite rude that none of the other order members are here. It's just mean."

"I know he does but right now, I don't want him anywhere near this. And yes, I agree with you there, no one should be left on their own through this war." James finished.

"When are we going to go in?" Sirius eagerly asked, all three of the marauders were next to one another lying flat on the ground facing the house. "I think we should go now!" Sirius got up from the forest floor, but James grabbed hold of his foot.

"Wait." Potter scanned the grounds to see for any activity. "We should wait, it's not even that dark we need to stay where we are until the moon comes out."

Then it hit them, today was the night of the full moon, they all looked at each other. "Shit it's tonight." Remus' face was blank, he didn't know what to do. He reached into his pocket and took out the potion Lily had given him a couple of days before.

"What is that?" James whispered avoiding making too much noise so they wouldn't be heard.

"Lily gave it to me, it's a potion to get rid of my lycanthropy." Remus answered quickly not taking his eyes of the vial. James was confused, he didn't even think it was possible.

"What are you doing? You said you were going to think about it, what if something goes wrong and it doesn't work?" Sirius questioned, he didn't like that Remus wasn't going think about it. Remus was always the rash one out of the two of them, and it scared him that it he wasn't thinking logically.

"Lily has been working on this for eleven years, I trust that she has done it right. She wouldn't have given it to me otherwise, she is too much of a perfectionist for it to be any other way. Plus, I don't think she would ever mean me any harm." Remus explained, his mind was made up. Lily was like a sister to him, she needed him more than ever now and he wasn't going to back away just for his own sake. With that, Remus popped the cork off the small bottle and downed the liquid in one go. He swallowed. His facial expression showed that he wasn't a big fan of the taste. "Merlin, she could have told me about the taste though." he joked, but none of the marauders joined in, they were all too concerned with how he was feeling.

"How are you feeling?" Sirius asked hesitating as he approach his boyfriend.

"Not bad. A bit tingling, but I think it will be fine." his boyfriend smiled, _is that the end of lycanthropy complete? Are there no more implications?_

"Remus. If there are any problems, any at all, you have to tell us." James instructed, Remus nodded in agreement. James didn't truly understand what just happened, everything was happening all at once, and he needed to focus on getting his wife out the evil lair as soon as possible.

There was silence from the three men as they waited to see if Remus was going to turn into a full blown werewolf as the full moon shone through the sky. Nothing happened. Remus looked at the other two, as if to say 'I'm okay', but somewhere far in the distance a howling could be hear.

"That has to be Greyback." James added. He smiled, it meant Lily must be inside the house, he was going to get her out and all would be well.

The boys heard a high pitch scream coming from somewhere in the house. "That's Lily." James blurted out, he didn't want to think about why she was screaming as well as how many times that had happened but he had to go and get her now.

"We need to wait for the right time James." Remus suggested. "We need to wait for a good time to go."

At that moment, all of the marauders watched as a ginger haired women ran away from the Manor, her hands were flailing as explosion missed her by only inches.

"I think now is a good time to move." Sirius suggested. Both Remus' and James' mouths were open, they didn't know how she got out but just dealt with the situation in front of them.

All three of them, got up as fast as a snitch and sprinted towards the Death Eaters and started throwing hexes at them to distract them from Lily, who was still running away from the Manor.

"Expluso!" James shouted and an explosion shot at the Death Eaters causing them to stop in their tracks and face the three crazy men running at them.

"Stupefy!" Remus proclaimed, causing one of the Death Eaters to fly backwards.

The other side also sent curses in James' direction. One shouted, "Confringo!" but James dodged the exploding spell.

Lights were flying from every wand, if you were to stand in the house of the Manor and looked out where all the sound of explosions were taking place. All you would be able to see if eruption of colours and the odd tree being set on fire.

"Expelliarmus!" Sirius screamed, he caught his dueller's wand, "Avis!" a large flock of birds conjured at the end of his wand and shot at the victim along with a loud gun fired followed by smoke.

"Nice one Sirius." Remus shouted, "Are you we now shaking it up then? Glacius Tria!" he pointed his wand at another Death Eater who was immediately covered in ice and was unable to move. Remus and Sirius laughed.

Meanwhile, James was going through the Death Eaters as if they were clay figures. He didn't waste any time to joke, he got what needed to be done, done. However, not the way that would have been the most ethically correct; he was using curses that he would never normally use. Ones that would be frowned upon if anyone found out what he was using, it wasn't that he was using any of the Unforgivable Curse (he made sure he would never use those). But Aurors would never normally cause harm or damage to their victims, but right at that moment, in that very second, James was not an Auror- he was a husband.

"Fiendfyre." the jet black haired man shouted at one, and flames eruptions from the ends of his wand to attack the victim.

"Flagrante." and the Death Eater screamed out in pain as his skin felt it was on fire.

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In the near off distance, Lily stopped running and turned around to see all her friends fighting Death Eaters to protect her. She had to help them out, however, at the same time she had to get the dagger out of her leg. Even though, she knew from her many years of training that she shouldn't take out the knife- that she what she was going to have to do.

She took off her belt from her waist to place it round her thigh after taking out the dagger first. As she braced yourself, her leg went numb, she yanked out the extremely sharp object and tightened the belt around her leg. This had to be done quickly to reduce the amount of blood loss, but it was already a lot to begin with.

The sound of a faint breeze came to meet her ears and followed by a dark and demeaning voice that spoke, "you stupid little mudblood. You thought you were able to get away this time. You will die before you defy me." and the voice belonged to Voldemort himself.

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I hope you enjoyed this chapter, I enjoyed writing it. If you do have any questions do ask me.


	19. I'm sorry James

Lily looked into the distance in front of her, she knew who was behind her. Her eyes widened, however she avoiding making any other movements. Right in front of Lily was the knife she had just pulled out of her leg, trees and Barty's wand. Her mind was running through what she could do, throw the knife or hex him with the wand. As this went through her brain, the evil wizard kept taunting her.

"How did you get away from me the first time then? Barty never told me how you did it. I think it's because you use a muggle gun, that's the only way you could get away from me." Lily didn't move, she thought the stiller she stayed the less likely he was to attack her. She was in front of the most powerful dark wizard of all time and still alive, for the second time. While the man was distracted by the sound of his own voice, the mother slowly reached and grabbed the dagger. With her eyes closed, she imagined where the wizard was, his body behind her but slightly to the left. "Why do you think you can defy me?" Voldemort asked menacingly, like an animal playing with his food before he devours it.

Suddenly, she spun anti-clockwise round and throw the dagger towards what little of a heart the man had. The sands of time slowed, the dagged rotated anti-clockwise and it headed towards its victim. The ginger haired women watched as the sharp object flow through the air, however

Voldemort's reactions were faster than she anticipated. "Protego!" the dagger simple defected off of the charm and landed on the forest floor not too far from Voldemort's feet. "You stupid-"

"Incendo!" Lily shouted picking up Barty's wand. He screamed the anti-curse and, "IMPERIO!"

Lily stopped moving, her face became blank and lifeless. Her emerald eyes reflected nothing of her personality, her body relaxed and stood at attention. She could hear an echoing snake like version of Voldemort's voice in her head giving her instructions.

"Pick up the dagger." she did as instructed. "Stab yourself five times." Lily wanted to refused, but couldn't. The knife was raised in her right hand, he tried to resist him. But failed. This was the biggest struggle is had faced, the crucio curse was a tease in comparison. It hurt to refuse, but it would be ten times worse if she carry out the order. She tried to stop what was going to come; but could not.

STAB! Her first blow punctured her left leg, still with as little control as she was, Lily attempted to hit an area that wasn't fatal. The pain was unimaginable, as she lifted the knife out, blood began to ooze out of the wound. She couldn't show the emotion on her face, because of the curse, but inside she was screaming. Screaming to end the pain, and screaming because of the pain. However, worse to come was Voldemort's intense voice again whispering, "higher." her body responded to him as if he was in command and slowly brought the dagger further up the body.

STAB! She hit one of her ovaries, she knew she was losing strength. Her heart tried to beat faster to accommodate for the blood lose, but it only made it worse. More blood poured out the two wounds, the agony was terrible. Lily gulped in an extreme mouthful of oxygen, to try and help, but it didn't help. Her body was going into shock, adrenaline was beginning to kick in for once there was very little it could do. She wasn't in control of running away nor stopping the stabbing, Lily wished she was in control; but no luck. Her eyes were closed now, she didn't want to see the external damage her mind was a constant reminder of the pain. Every second she tried to resist, even though with each blow it was getting hard to refuse the instruction.

"Higher, come on now. Don't be shy." he egged on, and her arms raises higher up her body.

STAB! She hit her large intestine. Her mind gave in, the pain took over and the stabbing began swifter. "Higher."

STAB! She tore open her spleen. "Now just a little higher."

STAB! Her left lung was now broken and fluid built up on top of it and began to collapse the lung into a pancake. He lift the curse, and his victim dropped to the forest floor in overwhelming pain. "I was going to let you die alone, but where's the fun in that. I'm going to kill you now, so no one will ever question my power ever again." the mad man took out his wand and pointed it at the almost lifeless Lily, she wanted to run away but she couldn't. Yes he had released the imperio curse, but her body could barely breath let alone run.

"Avada Ke-!" he was cut off by another voice, it was extremely familiar to Lily but her brain couldn't process the voice. She couldn't process any of the situation, as she lied there extremely still struggling to breath she said out loud to herself, "I'm sorry James, I'm so sorry.". There was a battle going on between Voldemort and someone else; but who, Lily did not know.

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This is a bit shorter than normal. But I thought it was best to have this part on it's own. Please let me know what you think about it.


	20. The Bite of a Werewolf

Meanwhile, in the not too far distance, the three boys looked around at their vanquished foe and began to celebrate.

"Wow! We actually did it! I honestly thought that one of us was going to die." Sirius commented happily, he was chuffed with his friends and especially himself.

"Yeah I have to adm- AAAHHHHHHH!" Remus screamed in pain, the other two boys turned round to face Remus. Greyback is his fully form werewolf and had torn open Remus' back and he was lying on the floor barely conscious.

"NNOOOO!" Sirius shouted as he ran over to Remus, he was stopped in his tracks by the werewolf growling in his face. "Confundo!" the beast slowly slumbered from side to side, confused with what had just happened. This gave Sirius time to turn into Padfoot, and battled it out teeth on teeth, the young wizard wasn't thinking clearly when he did so. If he was in his right mind, he would have taken his wand and used magic on him but he wasn't thinking rationally.

He didn't think about if he got any blood of the werewolf's in his system he would be one.

He didn't think about how he was going to take down the full blown 12 feet tall animal towering over him as he is a large dog.

He didn't think about what Remus would do if he found out what he was doing.

He didn't think at all. He just did what he thought was a good idea. In hindsight, it was a very stupid idea.

James held up his wand to help his friend when suddenly he heard a horrible, grogey and insane voice, "well well well, you found me. How does it feel to have the person you have been looking for, be right in your arms." It was Barty Crouch Junior.

"I'm bringing you in, you kill all three members of the Longbottom family and you are going to spend the rest of your days in Azkaban. What are you doing here anyway apart from hiding out?"

"Nothing out of the usual: drinking tea, eating scones, oh yeah I forgot to mention torturing your wife. Her screams were deafening, I can only imagine what she is like in bedroom." the bleeding man joked, blood gushed from an open wound next to his eye where Lily had hit him only minutes before. And behind his back he held a spare wand, out of sight from the auror in front of him. James was building with hatred, no one talks about Lily like that ever! He was the one causing her so much pain; and he was laughing about it. He hated that someone had caused her pain in any magnitude, however this criminal was making jokes out of the situation to provoke him. And it worked.

"You will die for what you just said." James spitted, suddenly raising his wand to point at his victim.

"What about what your darling wife told me, she said you weren't able to perform in the sack Potter?" the blood still dripping down the side of Barty's head, he wanted to duel James but only when he was mad enough to try and kill him. Barty wanted to kill James as well as drive him insane with memories of his crying wife.

"I will chop off you dick with a muggle axe if you say another word!" Potter threatened, he wanted to kill him so badly. Barty whipped out of the wand from behind his back, and they were duelling. "BOMBARDA!"

Either party screeched at each other, shouting spells to cause the other harm. Both hated each other as much as the other. James wanted Barty dead. Barty wanted James dead. The battle was intense, either one was at each other's throats shouting curses like: "Engorgio!" and "Incendio!". As the battle slowly came to an end, James blocked Barty's "Immobulus." which tried to freeze him, and he shouted "EXPELLIARMUS!"

The blood stained face looked stunned as his wand threw the air and into his enemy's hand. James still pointed his wand at Barty's face, "don't you ever talk about my wife like that ever again. Or so help me Merlin, I will kill you!" He meant what he said, and Barty could see that. "I'm talking you in now." his prisoner stared at him dead in eyes but made no sound, he knew he lost however wasn't going to stop him from giving up.

"JAMES!" Remus shouted. Potter quickly swiveled round to face Remus, he was bleeding on the floor. Greyback had slashed his back open and James looked at his friends slowly dripping with blood into the ground. As James looked at his friend, in that moment he had to decide: save Remus and Sirius or put away the man who had murdered his friends and tortured his wife. He wanted to do both, but trying to do both could result in one failing. Suddenly James zapped Barty unconscious and ran to where Remus was.

"What is Sirius doing?" James asked Remus, Sirius was still battling the werewolf right in front of where Remus was. "I need to move you out the way." his friend went to pick him up, but he refuse.

"No. Just save him." Remus mumbled,

"What about you? You need a healer and quick!"

"Not until he is here. Not until I know Sirius is safe." there was no point in arguing with Remus, his mind was set and nothing could change it.

James looked away from Remus and at the wolf war right in front of him. Both Greyback and Padfoot lashed out to try and hit one another; once Padfoot realised what he had done, he went more into a defensive mode. He was always between Greyback and Remus, to avoid the werewolf going after his boyfriends. They continued to growl, until Greyback lunged at Padfoot with his jaws wide open. He missed him, only by a fraction but enough for him to remain as a non-werewolf man. This was Sirius' chance, he used only his claws to rip the werewolf's skin to bring him as much pain as he had caused Remus.

"Aqua Eructo!" proclaimed James. A large amount of water poured out of the end of his wand, he controlled the liquid to make a barrier between Greyback and the rest of them. As the werewolf looked up and down a liquified wall, he was confused, James moved it closer to him in order to scare him. Greyback didn't know what else to do apart from run away and deal with the rest of the full moon somewhere else; so he did. Once out of sight, James dropped the wall and called out to a now transformed Sirius, "Padfoot! Get here now!"

Abruptly Sirius ran from where he was to the side of his bleeding boyfriend, "Oh Merlin, you're going to be alright. Did he get any of his blood in your system?" they all knew that if he did, it would be the end of being werewolf free.

"No he didn't. I'm fine, just it hurts a little." both James and Sirius could see he was a lot of pain, the cuts on his back were deep and wide.

"You're going to be okay. We are going to get you back to Hogwarts, Madam Pomfrey will fix you up really well." James positively described. He looked round to where Barty Crouch's body should be lying; but it was gone. He hated that the man got away, but at the moment his priority was getting Remus a healer and quick.

"Where's Lily?" Sirius asked, they had all fought off a dozen Death Eaters and still didn't have Lily, James was beating himself up. He forgot about his wife for a second, only to look up and behind Sirius was red and blue lights flying between two wizards. Swiftly, Potter araised to get a better look at who was fighting; it was Voldemort and someone else, it wasn't Lily the figure was too small but quite a lot smaller maybe a child, it was Harry.

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The next chapter will be up soon. Hope you enjoyed this one.


	21. Harry Vs Voldemort

Two hours before this point, at Hogwarts:

"No, I don't think I should just sit around and wait for them to get my mum. I should be out there helping them. I would be more use there, than here." Harry ranted, he continued to pace in front of the fireplace in Gryffindor common room. Both Hermione and Ron were sitting on the sofa facing him, trying to calm him down but having no luck.

"Look, Harry. I think your dad decided to keep you here for your safety. They don't know who will be there, or how dangerous it would be. So they were just doing it in your best interest." Hermione kindly suggested, she was concerned for Harry. He was never known for sitting out when something was going on, she admired and despised him for this quality.

"Yeah, could you imagine running into You-Know-Who bloody hell that would be horrible." Ron added, "it's not like you know enough magic to be helpful out there anyway Harry, we're only first years. What can we do?"

"We can do as much as we set our minds to. My mum taught me from a young age magic with a spare wand, I know enough to protect myself, she said that I was amazing for my age but I had no one to compare it to. I can help, I can do something." he headed for the door, he was going to do help, he couldn't sit around anymore.

"No Harry it's too dangerous." Hermione proclaimed, "I'm going to bed, it's getting late. I hope you will do the same. When they have news to tell you, they will come and get you. Until then Harry there is nothing you or I can do." as she walked up the girl dormitory stairs, Harry thought to himself, _why haven't I heard anything from them yet? Could they all be dead? I have only had a family, a really family for a minute. I don't want them to be gone, I'm not ready to do this on my own. I need my parents._

"Are you going to bed then Harry?" Ron queried, he could see the thought process going on in Harry's head. Ron had learnt that whatever Harry was thinking, his eyes would show it. It allowed him to be on the same wavelength as his friend most of the time.

"I can't do nothing." Harry mumbled, then the idea came to him; as if a speeding thought, "make sure Hermione thinks I've gone to bed." He shuffled quickly up to his dorm to grab a piece of equipment that would allow him to go where he needed to go, his broomstick. The one his mum bought for him when they went round Diagon Alley, he hadn't been able to ride too much but when he did, it felt amazing. He felt into his pocket to make sure his wand was still in there, and it was.

"How do you know where to go?" Ron question, it was a massive flaw in his plan.

"Malfoy Manor." Harry bluntly replied, moving towards the door of the common room again.

"How do you know where that is?"

"I've over heard Draco talking about it, I know which direction to go, I think." Harry hoped, he knew it was a long shot but it was better than any. "I've got to go." he moved out of the common room, through the painting and into castle. Thanks to the map he knew how to get out of the castle quite easily, behind the mirror on the fourth floor. The ceiling looked like it was going to fall in any second, but it was the quickest way out of the castle.

He was dead set one where he was going; with his broomstick in his hand, he crept round corners and darted through corridors to avoid explaining what he was doing to any teachers or prefects. It was all going perfectly, until he ran into Professor Dumbledore, "oh sorry." they said in unison to one another.

"My dear Harry. Are you going to play some late night quidditch?" the headmaster had a massive smile on his face, "you know, if I was you, the best place to go would be in the direction of moonlight." Harry didn't quite understand, _was the headmaster of the school allowing him to do this and turning a blind eye to it?_ "Don't forget that when approaching the place you are going, you do it with caution. It can get quite dangerous sometimes. Good luck with the quidditch Harry." and the old man skipped off out of sight.

Harry didn't know what to think, Dumbledore must have known he was going to help his dad, and he told him where to go. He didn't follow how his teacher was allowing him to do this. But shook off the feeling and went through the passageway, he moved at more of a run to reduce the amount of time he wasted. Once he was out of the passage and in Hogsmeade, the boy looked to the where the moon was and flow in that direction.

Harry didn't know whether to feel stupid or scared, he had just flown in the direction that Dumbledore had suggested. _Why didn't I ask for more of a direction or intelligent questions like: how long will I be flying for? Or how will I know which one is Malfoy Manor? Or will I get there in time to do any help?_ It made the young boy feel so stupid that he hadn't thought more like Hermione and gone into the situation with all the facts. He also felt bad going behind her back, even when she told him not to, it just made him think of the lecture he was going to get when he got back, "you could have died Harry.." but then he thought about it, he could die, he could go into this fight and not make it out alive. His parents would kill him, if they knew what he was doing right now. But he couldn't go back, not now. The wind push back his hair as he dove into the night sky, it was peaceful high above the trees. As he flow over the forest below him, _what if the Ministry find out?_ Harry thought to himself, _I know I cannot do make outside of school, could they take away my wand? It doesn't matter, if I have my family together, safe and well; that's all that matters. I'm sure that if I explain to them what has happened anyway, they would listen. They couldn't expel me after I try and stop the Death Eaters._ The eleven boy peered through his glasses to see vibrate colours flashing in between the trees in front of him, a couple of the trees were even on fire. This was a sign of something going on, nothing good could be happening, a large blasts could be seen clearer the closer he got to the tops of the tree, it was definitely magic. Harry avoided getting too close to the flashing lights, indicating spells were being cast, but wanted to land close enough be able to get there quick. So he drew closer to forest floor, dangling his feet from either side of his broom, as he slowly touched the floor, a loud bang startled him. He pulled out his wand to scan the area, he realised it was his feet breaking a branch. "Pull yourself together Harry." he said to himself, the emerald eyed boy tried to calm down by inhaling and exhaling. "Breath. Come on, I have to do this." and he set off towards the flashing lights. He wasn't going slowly at any cost, he knew the sooner he got there the more he could do to help. As he got closer to the screeching sounds and intense lights he slowed down, noticing that not too far in front of him was two wizards or witches fighting. Suddenly, the young boy hid behind the closest tree inching his way towards the two of them as quietly as possible, it was no longer a fight. This was a murder, he was going to witness a murder. Then he focused in harder on the woman who had just fallen to the floor, it was his mother, although Harry didn't know or recognize the man hurting his mother but it didn't stop him. He sprinted to where his mother was lying extremely still, "STOP!", _well hopefully the training my mum gave me is going to be enough, I won't let this man hurt you._ "Locomotor Wibbly!" Harry shouted and attempting to give the wizard jelly-legs but not succeeding as he easily deflected it.

"Who are you to defy me?" the evil man asked.

"No one of importance, just someone who doesn't want you to hurt anyone anymore. Densaugeo." he hit the man successfully with his teeth growing to increase difficulty to talk and pronounce certain words.

"Cucccio!" he screamed back, and missed Harry slightly as the dangerous curse flow extremely close to his head. His jet black hair still messy as ever almost took away his sight of his dueller, until the wind helped him by blowing it out of his glasses to get a perfect shot at the man gritting at his enlarged teeth.

"Steleus!" his victim sneezed giving Harry the opportunity to fire another curse, this time to finish him off, "Reducto!" and the man was no more than a pile of ash on the forest floor. Harry couldn't help but smile at his victory, he had done his first duel and won against a Death Eater; Ron wasn't going to believe him. Past the pile of ash on the floor in front of Harry was a man running towards him, it was his Dad; James.

"HARRY! Are you okay? Where's your mother? Where's Lily?" James shook Harry desperate for answers.

"I'm fine, mum's behind me." Harry swivelled and James faced his wife, but he didn't how injured she was.

Lily lied there barely moving, James at first couldn't tell if she was even alive until she gasped for breath once more. Her hands were placed on her lower stomach, her hands had earlier attempted to hold pressure down on her wounds but no more, while her lower limbs were at uncomfortable angles as she had once tried to get up, but no more. As the women's eyes her shut to hide her vision from the truth, that she was dying, and continued to mumble the same apology with what strength she had left. "I'm so sorry James. I'm so sorry." as if she was on repeat.

Her husband ran to her side, put left hand in her left hand and the other down the length of her face. "I'm here. We're going to get you to Hogwarts, Madam Pomfrey can get help you. You're going to be fine." James reassured her, a tear missed his circular glasses and fell to the forest ground.

"It's okay James, just look after Harry. Just look after our son."

"He's fine, he's right here. You're fine, we're all fine." James tried to repeat more reassuringly, but failing.

"Just look after Harry, don't hate him choices I made. Hate me not him." Lily whispered, her voice was fading.

"I don't hate you, Lily. Please just stay with me, we need to get you to Hogwarts, you're not going to die on me. You hear me." James begged, but his wife was deteriorating right in before his hazel eyes.

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It's been a while since I have uploaded. I hope you enjoy it.


	22. The Hospital Wing

Remus and Sirius stumbled over to where the family of Potter were surrounding Lily. Remus was still badly injured from the attack but able to move. So Sirius prompted Remus' arm over his shoulder and carried both of their weight towards the three members of the Potter family. They didn't know what had happened to Lily, but they knew it wasn't good considering that she wasn't getting up on her own terms.

As James saw them approaching them he turned abruptly to face them, his tear stained face looked so heartbroken when he saw his friends. "Please we need to get her out of here." Sirius and Remus thought about it, he would have to apparate outside of Hogwarts and carry her into the castle, but none of them knew how strong she was if she would even survive going through that kind of trauma.

James turned back to look at Lily ever growing pale face. "we need to apparate, Lily. And you need to survive the journey, none of this dying crap on me okay?" she slightly moved her head to agree, Lily knew that she would have to use all the power she had left now to stay alive. "I'm going to pick you up now okay?" and she tried to nod again but struggled, the hazel eyed man placed one hand under her head and the other under her waist. Her head was so heavy and weak, where she couldn't even hold up her own head. James continued to raise her slowly up to avoid hurting her anymore, "Harry hold onto me, and try not to throw up." the first year did what he was told and the Potter family disappeared from where they were stood. Soon followed by Remus and Sirius who also apparated to outside of Hogwarts.

All five of them appeared outside the gates to Hogwarts, just on the outskirts of Hogsmeade. Harry had to bend over trying to stop himself throwing up from his first experience of apparition. James carried Lily's body in his arms and Sirius supported the weight of his boyfriend, they were just outside the gates of the school. To them this was the closest they could get, while they apparated, so now they had to get through the gate in front of them. However, this wasn't a problem for James, Sirius and Remus, being the Marauders had given them many experiences with this exact gate.

"Why didn't we go through the Shrieking Shack?" Sirius blurted out, he was struggling to hold up Remus by this point, his boyfriend was almost unconscious from the severity of his wounds.

"Because this way is quicker!" James shouted, he didn't want to argue with anyone right now. As he held his wife in his arms slowly bleeding out, he could feel her breathing slowing down and becoming fainter; she was dying. "Harry, I need you to run ahead and get help."

His son gulped down any previous food that might of come up, and was ready to help his dad, but couldn't see how he was going to get over the gate. "What do you want me to do?"

"Sirius!" James shouted, indicating to Sirius to pull his weight. His friend pulled out his wand from his pocket and pointed it at the gate, sparks threw from out of his wand and the gate slowly and squeaky opened.

As soon as this happened, Harry ran and squeezed through the ever growing gap to go get any type of help. To him his feet weren't going fastest enough, but he was running as fast as snitch, he entered through the main door and up towards the hospital wing. Once running through the corridor, leading to the hospital wing he hit the door with so much power and speed that the sounding echo woke up Professor Mcgonagall, and with her chambers being so near to the hospital wing that she was the first one to greet her student.

"What are you doing here so late Mr Smith?" Professor Mcgonagall knew it was a false identity, but never knew who was listening in. "I always hate taking pointed away from my own house, but need be I shall."

"I need your help. My parents, my mum is really badly hurt and so is Remus. We need Madam Pomfrey now!" Harry blurted out, his teacher was taken back by this new flow of information. She knew that Lily had been missing, but didn't know much more than that; she knew she needed to help.

"Where are they?" she asked promptly.

"Coming into the castle right now I think." Harry said assuming they were not too far behind him.

"Go get Professor Dumbledore, and I will get the hospital wing ready as well as Madam Pomfrey." he nodded in agreement, and heading towards the Headmaster's office. Adrenaline had flooded his system, he wasn't concerned with anything else than his mission to go a get the headmaster.

Meanwhile, James and Sirius were doing everything they could to take their loved ones to the hospital wing. It was getting increasingly harder for them, as their own bodies withered under the extra weight, however they carried on. "How are you doing Prongs?" Sirius mumbled to James, who was only three feet in front of him.

"I'm fine, but I don't know about Lily. She is barely breathing, and I don't know if we can get her there in time." James powered through, "what about Remus?"

"I don't know, I hope he will be fine. But I don't know." Sirius muttered.

"I'm fine." Remus urged, he had just woken up from being unconscious to hear his boyfriend frightened for his life. "I'm going to be fine." Remus repeated, just to plant it into their minds better. Both James and Sirius continued to pull their loved ones towards the door of the hospital wing, on arrival, the door flung open with Madam Pomfrey looking as worried as a mother at the sight of Lily in James' arms.

"What happened to her?" Madam Pomfrey asked as she pushed them all towards the hospital beds. "Mr. Potter please put her down, slowly onto the bed." James tried to do what was asked of him, but his arms refused to release the mother of his child. Madam Pomfrey could see the fear in his eyes, she could see how scared he was to let her go. "James, look at me." he did. "I need to treat her now, she is struggling to hold on. You have to trust me, I will do everything in my power to save her. But you have to put her on the bed. Slowly." James knew she was right, and didn't argue with her assessment; and lowered her slowly into the bed now in front of him. As he slowly released the body, first he allowed her legs to uncoil to find a comfortable position. Next followed by her torso, where her breathing was getting almost undetectable, but finally he lowered her head onto a pillow at the top of the bed, her eyes were shut and her mouth was open. James couldn't help but start crying when he had fully detached himself from his wife to look at her cold pale face. Blood covered her clothes and continued to drip down from her forehead. "James, I need you to wait over there. I'm going to need some space to work." Madam Pomfrey urged the man to go sit by Remus. But James only moved away as far as the chair at the side of his wife's bed, Poppy could see this and drew the curtain around the bed to allow her to work without James watching her every move.

"What about Remus?" Sirius shouted.

"Look after Lily. She's a lot worse than me." Remus awoke to interject again.

"Mr Lupin is correct, Lily's wounds are of higher severity. He needs rest, once I'm done here I will straight over to help." Sirius could see that there was no way he was going to get his way, he didn't like risking Remus' life at all; but they had a good point. With this, Padfoot helped lowering Remus into the bed next to Lily's, onto his side so that he won't put any pressure of his wounds that were still open and oozing blood.

"How are you feeling, Remus?" his boyfriend asked, trying not to distress his partner by staring at his wounds for too long. "Does it hurt?"

"It's fine. I'm fine, it feels quite numb right now. See if you can get any painkiller potion from the shelf." Remus pointed to the self filled with different shaped vials and containers; all filled with all different coloured liquids.

"Which one do you need?" Sirius panicked while staring at the varst choice in front of him.

"It's green slime colour." But that information narrowed it down to about ten vials, he started to panic more as he began to start to hyperventilate. "Sirius, I'm fine." Remus could see Padfoot freaking out, and wanted to calm him down quickly. "We have time. Just relax. It should be in a large round container." Bingo, Sirius saw the potion Remus' needed.

"I've got it!" he said excited as he ran over to Remus' side. Sirius opened the container and gave to Remus to drink, Padfoot could see that he was in more pain than he led on by how he gulped as much potion that was left in the bottle. Suddenly Remus spit out the liquid in his mouth.

"That wasn't the right potion. That was the babbling beverage."

"How do you know that?" Sirius questioned.

"James and yourself thought it would be funny to give it to me fourth year at Hogwarts, to test out some pranks." Remus remembered. He looked over the where James was sitting, trying to cheer him up but there was no use. He was in a different world, thinking way to hard about everything as he stared at his hands drained in Lily's blood. "There has to be another potion."

"But I couldn't find it anywhere."

"Look again." Remus insisted. Sirius ran to the shelf again and look again, as instructed. As he scanned the area again he couldn't see anything.

"Come on. Come on." and then he saw it, it would have been hidden behind the Babbling beverage if it was still in the shelf. "I've got it this time." and ran back to Remus with potion in his hand.

"You better." Remus comment, he drank more cautiously this time. But his boyfriend was correct, he got the right potion this time. "You got it right."

"Is there anything else you need?" Sirius asked.

"Essence of Dittany."

"What's that?"

"It regrows skin over wounds. It's a herb, brown-coloured. It should be near the potions, you need to make the potion. Like in Potions class, we made it once."

"I didn't listen to Slughorn at all, I was asleep in most of his lessons."

"Well you're going to need to remember now. The instructions should be around there somewhere." Remus tried to move into a more comfortable position, but the painkiller potion hadn't sunk in yet. But the Babbling beverage had. "You see this is what I mean when I use to say we need to pay attention at school, you might need it in the future. And this is now, Merlin your charming good looks aren't going to save you now Sirius. I'm not saying it's not helping, but it won't get me to do your homework this time-"

"What are you going on about?" Sirius was so confused with what Remus was chattering on about.

"You. If you didn't put this scheme into motion too early none of us would be here."

"So are you saying it's my fault?" Sirius queried, he hadn't thought about who was to blame. But Remus was right, if he had just stuck to the plan none of us would be in this position. So with this new found guilt, Sirius became extremely quiet and tried to find the instructions of how to make the potion for Remus.

Meanwhile, James still sat not moving staring into his hands. A piece of cloth separated him from Lily and Madam Pomfrey, he could hear the healer talk to herself. He tried to listen in closer, to hear what information he could about Lily's condition, however his mind was in it's own place. He couldn't silenced his thoughts about Lily, to even listen into what was actually happening to Lily. _There is nothing I can do._ He thought to himself. _What if she dies because I didn't get her here fast enough? Why did she feel she couldn't come to me when she needed help? I could of been there for all of this, she didn't have to go through it alone. And if she didn't go through it alone, she might of been fine. It's all my fault. Look at all this blood, she has lost so much blood, how could someone survive his much blood loss?_ James continued to beat himself up mentally when Professor Mcgonagall walked into the hospital wing in her casual clothes.

"Mr Black, what are you looking for?" she asked, she wanted to help with whatever she could do.

"I was looking for the plant Dittany, and how to make it into the potion for Remus' back." Sirius was in upset mood and wasn't up for joking around with his favorite teacher.

"Here I know how to do it. Before I was a Transfiguration professor, I was a very well respected student." she rolled up her shelves and began to work.

It was no time at all until the potion was made, she perched on Remus' right hand side of the bed where she had easy access to his wounds. The skin surrounding his wounds became pale and crackly as if it was old newspaper about to peal off ."Right Professor Lupin this is going to hurt, a lot." she could tell by the amount of gashes that this wasn't going to be easy for Remus to persevere through.

"Please call me Remus, Professor Mcgonagall." Remus smiled, which Minerva couldn't see but could hear the happiness in his voice.

"Only if you call me, Minerva. But this will hurt." she got a large sized dollop on her palm, and looked over to Sirius whimpering behind her. "You over there, keep him still and calm. This is going to hurt more than falling 50 feet off your broomstick hundred times." Sirius wide eyed as he realised his job and scurried over to where Remus' head was.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to blame it on you." Remus muttered.

"No you're right, this is my fault. I didn't tell you but before Lily went missing the first time she told me something. She told me that she thought someone had been following her, but she didn't want me to talk to James about it, she didn't want to worry him. But if I had done something none of us would be here, everyone would've been safe." Sirius had never told anyone until that point what had happened, but he could see in his boyfriend's eyes that he was shocked.

"You couldn't of known." Remus mumbled. "ARRRGHH!" the scream indicated that Minerva was spreading the paste over the wounds. Remus grabbed Sirius' hand and gripped tightly, this came as a shock to Sirius who was trying to be supporting but struggled under the pressure crushing his hand. "ARRRGGHH!"

The screaming continued until Minerva said in hushed tones, "It's done. You need to get some rest, if you can. It's going to take time to heal, but you'll be okay." and Remus nodded through the unbearable pain.

"It's going to be okay. I'm here if you need anything." Sirius prompted to Remus.

"I could use a cup of tea." Sirius nodded and went off to make an amazing cup of tea.

On the other side of the room, Lily's procedure was going on for a prolonged period of time. So Minerva walked past James and over to Madam Pomfrey, "how is it going Poppy?" The Professor whispered, to avoid James from hearing but he could still hear everything.

"Not how I would hope it to be going. She lost an enormous amount of blood, I don't know what else we can do apart from wait. Whatever happened with her injuries, I've never seen anything like this. I don't know if anyone could survive this, we are going to have to wait and see."

James moved for the first time in hours to pull across the sheet separating them to talk to his wife's physician face to face, "so there is nothing more you can do?" he said bluntly.

"Her wounds were extensive, whatever happened to her was… I have never seen anything-"

"What are her injuries?" James said concerned, he wanted to understand what Lily went through.

"Her head has a gash, three broken knuckles as well as six stab wounds: her left and right leg, from what I can tell her womb, spleen, intestine and left lung. On top of curses being used on Lily." James was taken back, he didn't realise how much she was hurt. He still didn't truly understand what had happened to entail all of those injuries, but he didn't want to think about it.

"What can I do for her?" the husband mumbled.

"Sit with her. Keep her fighting, the only one who is going to pull Lily through this is Lily." Poppy replied quietly. James lowered himself slowly into the his chair once more, and held onto his wife's hand, and there he stayed until his wife awoke, that is what he told himself; but he felt that he was would leave.

Hours past, James still didn't leave Lily's side, Dumbledore had already come down to visit them and talk to them about what they knew. But no one said much, James wouldn't respond to anything as he gazed at his wife wishing her to wake up. "Dad?" Harry muttered in James' direction.

"I'm sorry Harry. What did you say?" James asked as he awoke out of his trance, he didn't notice his son was in the hospital wing with them.

"I asked how mum was doing?"

"She isn't doing well. If it wasn't for you, she would have been gone a long time before we got her here. You saved her. You were incredibly brave, I couldn't do what you did." James replied honestly, he had never seen anyone take on Voldemort and come out victorious.

"I only did what mum taught me. He was a Death Eater, he never expected such spells flying at him." James formed a crease in between his eyebrows almost hidden behind glasses, he found it so weird how modest his son was being.

"It's wasn't a Death Eater." everyone who was in the hospital wing listened into the conversation, because it seemed to be getting interesting. "It was Voldemort."

"Wait do you mean the one they call You-Know-Who? Ron doesn't talk about it that much, but he never uses that man's real name. Wait! So… that was him!"

"Yes! And you defected him." James summarized.

"Merlin!" Harry gasped. "Wait so he's gone?"

"For now. But I don't think that he is gone completely." Remus interjected. "I don't think he somehow still alive, barely though."

"Not if I have a say about it." A very familiar voice spoke from a hospital bed, it was Lily. She was so pale and cold, but still pushing through the pain to speak.

"LILY!" James screamed from her side, he leant down and pressed his lips against his wife's forehead.

"No need to shout I'm right next to you." James smiled at his wife. "I'm so sorry for what I did, James."

"I forgive you. Ten times over I forgive you. Just promise me one thing?" the hazel eyed man asked.

"What is it?"

"That you never leave me."

"Not planning to ever again." She smiled at her husband and kissed him. "But Harry needs to be protected from Voldemort."

"Don't worry. I'll make sure Voldemort dies, this isn't over." James muttered.

THE END

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Thank you for staying with me until the very end. I will be reposting this story with extra bits, and some well needed adjustments; but that will be out at a later date. Also, I have left this story with an ending that will allow me to do a sequel if enough people would like one. Hope you enjoyed it.


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